Norwegian airline set to increase connectivity at Malaga Airport

Norwegian airline, which has its main base of operations in Spain on the Costa del Sol, has sealed an agreement to buy Norway's main regional flight airline, Widerøe. This acquisition will improve connectivity and expand the route network offered by the fourth largest carrier at Malaga Airport.

In a statement Norwegian said that, by linking the Widerøe regional route network with Norwegian national and international routes, it "ensures an offer for the customer with better connectivity and a fluid end-to-end experience". Widerøe covers more than forty small and medium airports in Norway, in addition to some larger infrastructures in Europe, while Norwegian offers more than 300 routes to 114 destinations in the Nordic countries and in Europe.

"This is a milestone in the history of Norwegian aviation. Our two airlines have coexisted for many years and no one knows the aviation market in this country better. With this transaction, we will now create an optimized and more comprehensive offering for all customers, and we look forward to offering fluid travel across our route networks," Geir Karlsen, CEO of Norwegian said.

Widerøe is the oldest aviation group in Norway. It has a fleet of about 50 aircraft and its market share is approximately 20% of Norwegian national traffic, measured in number of passengers. Widerøe will continue to exist as a separate company with its own brand, organisation and headquarters in Bodø. Norwegian will acquire Widerøe for a cash consideration of NOK 1,125 million ( approximately 96.6 million euros).

In a recent interview with SUR, Geir Karlsen considered Malaga as "the main destination in Spain, by far, over the rest of the airports where it operates such as Alicante, Madrid and Barcelona in which we have resumed activity this high season". For this summer Norwegian has increased planes based at Malaga Airport from two to three and has added new routes this high season to Haugesund, considered a cultural centre in southwestern Norway; Växjö, in south-eastern Sweden, and Stockholm-Skavasta, south of Stockholm.