Norwegian celebrates 20 years and over 300 million passengers

Fly

Norwegian celebrates 20 years and over 300 million passengers

From: Editorial department
– Sep 2, 2022

Remove

Norwegian celebrates 20 years and over 300 million passengers

Norwegian is celebrating today that it has been exactly 20 years since the company began flying. Since its inception, over 300 million passengers have flown with Norwegian.

On September 1st at 2:00 PM in 2002, the first Boeing 737 took off from Oslo to Bergen, marking the beginning of the airline Norwegian. Over the past 20 years, the company has welcomed over 300 million passengers on board. Of these 300 million passengers, over 60 million have travelled with Norwegian to and from Sweden.

Norwegian currently has over 4,000 employees. The main market is the Nordic region with a large route network between the Nordic region and the rest of Europe. In 2002, Norwegian operated four domestic routes in Norway and this summer has flown 280 routes to 108 destinations. From Sweden, Norwegian flies to almost 50 destinations.

– Norwegian's development over the past 20 years would not have been possible without its passengers and we have received a positive response from day one when we entered the market with a clear goal; everyone should be able to afford to fly. Not everyone liked the new competition, but since then the price of airline tickets has decreased and Norwegian has made it possible for many people to travel. So it is our passengers and employees who we can thank above all for Norwegian being a 20-year-old with a future ahead of it, says Norwegian's CEO Geir Karlsen.

When Norwegian started in 2002, it had seven aircraft and around 300 employees. The following year, its first full year of operations, over 1.2 million passengers flew with Norwegian. In comparison, 2.2 million passengers flew with Norwegian in July alone this year.

The 20th anniversary was celebrated at Oslo Gardermoen Airport in connection with the anniversary flight to Bergen, exactly 20 years after Norwegian's very first flight. On hand to congratulate were Norwegian's founder Bjørn Kjos, State Secretary Jacob Bjelland from the Norwegian Ministry of Infrastructure and Norwegian airport operator Avinor's CEO Abraham Foss.