History Norwegian Air Shuttle

the routes operated on behalf of braathens in western norway during 1990s



a fokker 50 operated norwegian air shuttle in 1999


regional airline – 1993–2002

norwegian air shuttle (nas) founded on 22 january 1993 take on regional airline services produced busy bee braathens in western norway. busy bee, founded in 1966, subsidiary of braathens operated fleet of fokker 50 aircraft on charter services. included network of regional services between cities on west coast of norway operated on wet lease mother company. following busy bee s bankruptcy in december 1992, nas took on 3 leased fokker 50 aircraft, , started operating bergen airport, flesland haugesund airport, karmøy, bergen molde airport, Årø or kristiansund airport, kvernberget, , onwards trondheim airport, værnes. company established , owned former busy bee employees , had workforce of fifty. based in bergen, later established technical base in stavanger.

from 1 april 1994, airline began service bergen Ålesund airport, vigra. in 1995, company received fourth fokker 50s, , had revenue of nok 86.6 million , profit of nok 2.9 million. flew 50 daily services.

by 1999, company had 6 fokker 50s , flew 500,000 passengers on 20,000 flights. company had revenue of nok 172 million , profit of nok 13 million. on 2 june 2000, nas bought helicopter operator lufttransport helikopter service. in 2000, nas fleet expanded 7 fokker 50s. 2 january 2001, several braathens routes terminated, including nas-operated services kristiansund trondheim , molde. route bergen haugesund, , bergen–molde–trondheim reduced.

on 7 january 2002, nas took on responsibility route stavanger newcastle, flying 2 round trips per day. first route on airline did not wet lease aircraft braathens, instead operated route in own right. after braathens bought scandinavian airlines system (sas) in november 2001, contracts norwegian had braathens routes on norwegian west coast cancelled sas, wanted subsidiary sas commuter take routes over. nas had 18-month cancellation period in contract braathens, not respected sas; contracts terminated without notice.

low-cost carrier – 2002 onwards

boeing 737-300 taxiing runway, henrik ibsen depicted on fin



norwegian operated 7 mcdonnell douglas md-80s inherited flynordic

following decision sas purchase braathens, , subsequent termination of contracts between braathens , nas, nas announced in april 2002 start domestic scheduled services low-cost carrier on busiest routes. 1 september 2002, airline re-branded norwegian.

the airline opened second hub @ warsaw frederic chopin airport in poland, flying central european destinations. there 2 boeing 737 operating warsaw. base closed in 2010. norwegian air shuttle asa announced 24 april 2007 had bought 100% of swedish low-cost airline flynordic finnair plc; becoming largest low-cost airline in scandinavia. payment shares in flynordic, finnair received 5% share stake in norwegian.

on 30 august 2007, norwegian ordered 42 new boeing 737-800 aircraft, options 42 more, order worth us$3.1 billion. order later increased 6 aircraft in november 2009. in july 2010 15 of options converted orders, , in june 2011 15 more options converted, bringing total order of new, owned 737-800s 78 aircraft 12 remaining options. additionally, norwegian introduced leased boeing 737-800 aircraft fleet. first leased 737-800 arrived @ oslo airport, gardermoen, norway, on 26 january 2008.

in april 2010, norwegian started flights oslo-gardermoen , stockholm helsinki-vantaa airport. during 2011, norwegian had 3 aircraft stationed there, introducing domestic flights oulu airport , rovaniemi airport on 31 march 2011. in may, flights 9 additional international destinations began.

in october 2009, norwegian announced intended start flights oslo new york city , bangkok, requiring new intercontinental aircraft. in 2010, said considering 15 intercontinental destinations scandinavia, , consider services south america , africa. on 8 november 2010, norwegian announced had contracted lease 2 new boeing 787 dreamliners delivery in 2012; , negotiating leasing of additional aircraft.

on 25 january 2012, norwegian announced largest orders of aircraft in european history. orders consist of 22 boeing 737-800 , 100 boeing 737 max 8 aircraft options 100 of latter; , 100 airbus a320neos options 50.

in late october 2012, airline announced new base @ london gatwick spring 2013 3 boeing 737-800s used on new international routes london leisure destinations in spain, portugal, france, italy , croatia. announced routes flown in competition airlines such easyjet, monarch, ryanair , thomson airways. gatwick served norwegian large number of cities in scandinavia.

a norwegian boeing 787-8 shortly before landing @ los angeles international airport

in 2016 norwegian won first charter contract in united states, flying 3 boeing 737-800s out of chicago/rockford international airport , general mitchell international airport in milwaukee mexico , caribbean december 2016 april 2017 apple vacations , funjet vacations.

on 20 april 2017, norwegian announced launch flights between london-gatwick , singapore boeing 787. flight operated norwegian air uk.