Norwegian Airlines, also called Norwegian Shuttle, was founded on 22 January 1993. It is a low-cost airline, the largest airline in Norway. This company is the fourth largest airline in Europe after EasyJet, Ryanair and Wizz Air. It is the second-largest airline company in Scandinavia and the ninth-largest airline company in Europe in terms of passenger numbers. The airline company also offers a very high-frequency domestic flight schedule within Scandinavia and Finland. It also offers high-frequency domestic flights to business destinations such as London and holiday destinations in the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands. It transported over 30 million people in 2016. This airline company is known for its distinctive livery of the white with a red nose. It also has portraits of all high achievers on the tail fins of the aircraft.

Norwegian flights are operated by themselves and by wholly owned subsidiaries. These subsidiaries include Norwegian Air Sweden and Norwegian Air Norway. Every airline holds a unique air operator’s certificate. However, it shares branding and the commercial functions with the rest of the group and the corporate identity.

Norwegian also owned and operated the Norwegian Air Argentina until December 2019. It operated domestic flights within the country.

Norwegian Air UK and Norwegian Long Haul are long-haul subsidiaries. Both the subsidiaries were liquidated when the long-haul operations ended due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Norwegian utilized the Ireland-based Norwegian International for operations outside of Norway or Sweden until April 2021.

History 1993-2001

NAS, or the Norwegian Air Shuttle, was founded on 22nd January 1993 to take over the regional airlines services produced by Busy Bee for the Braathens in Western Norway. Busy Bee was founded in 1966, and it was a subsidiary of Braathens, which operated a fleet of 50 Fokker aircraft on charter services. It also included the network of regional services between the cities on the west coast of Norway operated on a wet lease for the mother company. Busy Bee got bankrupt in December 1992, and NAS took over the three leased Fokker 50 aircraft.

The airline began service from Bergen to Alesund Airport on 1 April 1994. In 1995, the company also received its fourth Fokker 50s, with a revenue of around NOK 86.6 million. It had a profit of NOK 2.9 million. It flew 50 daily services.

2002-2009

Braathens brought Scandinavian Airline systems in November 2001. The Norwegian contracts with Braathens for the routes got cancelled by SAS.

Norwegian Airlines had an 18-month cancellation period in the contract with Braathens. NAS announced in April 2002 that it would start the domestic scheduled services as a low-cost barrier on the busiest routes.

The airline also opened its second hub at the Warsaw Frederic Chopin airport for flying to central European destinations. It initially started by operating two Boeing 737 operating from Warsaw. On 24 April 2007, Norwegian Airlines announced that it had bought 100% of the Swedish airline FlyNordic.

Norwegian airlines also ordered 42 new Boeing 737-800 aircraft on 30 August 2007.

2010-2017

The airline announced that it intended to start flights from Oslo to New York and Bangkok in October 2009. For this, new intercontinental aircraft was required. In November 2010, the airline announced that it had contracted to lease two new Boeing 787 Dreamliner with delivery in 2012.

On 25 January 2012, it also announced the most significant aircraft orders in European history. The orders consisted of 22 Boeing 737-800 and around 100 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft.

The airline company announced a new base at London Gatwick in spring of 2013. The Boeing flights were also introduced to new international routes from London, Spain, France, Italy, Croatia, and Portugal.

2020

Norwegian outlines its plans to qualify for a governmental loan from the state on 27 April 2020. It also included the conversion of its debt and leasing commitments to equity. The airline company also began adding flights for the month of July from Norway to Denmark and Sweden on 17 June 2020.

Corporate affairs

Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA, which is the parent company got listed its shares on the Oslo Stock Exchange with the symbol NAS. The Norwegian group also consists of the parent companies with its subsidiaries in Denmark, Ireland, Finland, Norway, Spain, UK and Sweden.