Norwegian opens Helsinki base

The airline Norwegian opens a Finnish base at Helsinki's Vantaa airport. At the same time it introduces two domestic routes and expands the current international offer from two to 13. Three aircraft will be based in Helsinki.

"We are happy to announce that we are increasing our presence in Finland by opening a new base in Helsinki and basing three of our aircraft here. Norwegian entered the Finnish market in April, and after a mere five months our Helsinki-Oslo and Helsinki-Stockholm routes have proven to be a great success. We believe that both the Finnish business and leisure traveller are ready for more fares that everyone can afford to both domestic and international destinations" said Norwegian's CEO, Bjørn Kjos.

As the second largest airline in Scandinavia and the third largest low lost airline in Europe, Norwegian serves a total of 238 routes to 93 destinations both domestic and international.

Two domestic destinations

By entering the Finnish domestic market, Norwegian further increases its foothold as a major Nordic player. Today, the airline has domestic operations in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. The new Finnish routes include Helsinki-Oulu and Helsinki-Rovaniemi. Four daily flights will serve the Helsinki-Oulu route and one daily flight will operate between Helsinki and Rovaniemi. The first flight departs March 31 2011.

13 international destinations

Norwegian has since late April 2010 operated several daily flights between Helsinki and Stockholm and Helsinki and Oslo. Spring 2011 Norwegian introduces 11 new international destinations departing from Helsinki's Vantaa airport: Copenhagen, Malaga, Nice, Crete (Chania), Rome, Barcelona, London Gatwick, Split and Alicante.

Tickets will go on sale on Wednesday October 6 at 1 pm CET. Prices start at €29 to domestic destinations as well as to typical business and urban holiday destinations in continental Europe. The longer routes to Southern Europe start at €59. Domestic routes go into operation on March 31, whereas international routes start in early to mid May.

Source: Norwegian