To the press bureau
Fornebu, 23 November 2004
New connections in the air:
The low-price airlines are setting a course for the future
Sterling and Norwegian have formed an alliance to cooperate primarily on 13 of their European routes, which were launched for sale today.
“This partnership will allow us to offer passengers more departures as well as new routes, and also to make optimal use of both our fleets of aircraft,” says Harald Andresen, President of Sterling.
Ticket sales for the new routes commence today, 23 November. The alliance means that the airlines will buy seats from each other on selected routes and departures. The alliance will be fully operative by 1 May, although some routes will be launched as early as 19 February 2005.
Both airlines will sell the seats included in the alliance at their own separate rates and in their respective markets. This will increase competition even more in the market. Sterling and Norwegian will operate separately on some routes, although many routes out of Norway will see the airlines cooperating on purchasing seats from each other. Norwegian will fly most of the departures between Oslo and Copenhagen.
“This is the right sort of agreement from an industry perspective. Cooperation between our airlines will give a boost to our competitive edge. As a result, we can avoid flying wing to wing as well as still being able to compete in terms of price. These factors will all help lower our costs and then still allow us to guarantee long-term budget prices in the market as well as ensure both airlines cost-effective operation,” says Bjørn Kjos, Managing Director of Norwegian.
The alliance on seat purchasing applies to the following direct routes from Norway:
Oslo – Alicante (Every day)
Oslo – Alicante (Murcia) (Saturday)
Oslo – Malaga (Every day)
Oslo – Nice (Every day)
Oslo – Montpellier (Wednesday-Saturday) – New route
Oslo – Copenhagen (Up to 12 departures daily)
Oslo – Paris Beauvais (Monday-Thursday-Friday-Sunday)
Oslo – Roma Ciampino (Monday-Tuesday-Thursday-Friday-Sunday)
Bergen – Alicante (Murcia) (Saturday)
Bergen – Malaga (Saturday)
Bergen – Nice (Saturday)
Stavanger – Alicante (Murcia) (Sunday)
Stavanger – Malaga (Saturday)
Stavanger – Nice (Saturday)
There will also be more frequent departures on many routes during the high season, as well as many more routes via Copenhagen.
Press material can be downloaded from the following websites.
www.sterlingticket.com/pressematerialesw177.asp or sw15846.asp