The case in summary Rakel Hagen Olsen and her two children are going on an Easter holiday to Mosjøen from Honningsvåg, and found NOK 48,000 for round-trip plane tickets. The alternative is a car trip that takes 36 hours round trip. They choose the car over the plane. Olsen is upset about high flight prices in Northern Norway, and believes it should be possible to travel cheaper. Flight analyst Hans Jørgen Elnæs says that flight prices in the north may become cheaper due to Norwegian’s acquisition of Widerøe and the government’s cut in the maximum price on FOT routes. Widerøe agrees that the prices are expensive, but says there are cheaper tickets if you are flexible with ticket type and travel time. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAi. The content is quality assured by news’s journalists before publication. Olsen is originally from Mosjøen, but lives in Honningsvåg in Vest-Finnmark with his family. The Easter holiday to the home place will not be a cheap affair for Rakel and the children. – The alternatives are either to spend a lot of money on flights or to drive to Mosjøen. I had actually decided to drive, but my husband suggested checking the flight prices, she tells news. The drive from Honningsvåg to Mosjøen and back takes around 36 hours, according to Google Maps. At the last minute, she took a look at the flight prices between Finnmark and Mosjøen. Olsen first applied on departure from Alta. There came the price of around NOK 27,000 round trip. Alta is three hours away from Honningsvåg by car. In addition, you have to cross a mountain pass that is often closed in winter. – The challenge is that you can’t always catch the plane from there if the roads are closed. It is a risky sport in itself. So she checked the prices from Honningsvåg on 22 March with a return trip on 1 April. An even higher five-digit amount was lit up on the screen: NOK 48,634. NOK 48,634 was the price Widerøe was to have for two adult tickets and a child round trip Honningsvåg-Mosjøen. Photo: Screenshot – I just sat and grinned to myself, says the weekender. In addition, it is not possible to combine a youth ticket with other tickets, so the son of twelve is considered an adult, according to Olsen. She emphasizes that she would prefer to order all the tickets together in case something unforeseen happens. – Then I found out that we are still driving. It was Radio Nordkapp that mentioned the case first. Aftenposten has also written about Rakel’s story. – Must be able to travel cheaper Olsen is upset about the situation northern Norwegian air passengers are in. Especially if you are traveling within the country. – In the south, people can go on a weekend trip to places like London, Milan and Warsaw for NOK 500. Here we get to Olderfjord by car for the same price, she says with a twinkle in her eye. – It feels to us who live here that we are paying dearly for people in southern Norway to have cheaper flights. At the same time, the airlines base themselves on the fact that it is large companies or government actors who pay for the routes here. – What do you think should be done here? – I don’t have much insight into how flight prices are priced. But I believe with my hand on my heart that it must be possible to travel for less than almost NOK 50,000 here. There is talk of 120 miles between Honningsvåg and Mosjøen for three round trips. Olsen is a member of SV and active in the county team in Finnmark. Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel – It sounds a bit excessive. These are prices you never hear about domestically in Norway, says flight analyst Hans Jørgen Elnæs about the history of Olsen. Recently, he compared the prices of the three major airlines in Norway. It showed that Widerøe has an average ticket price per passenger of around NOK 1,650. Flight analyst Hans Jørgen Elnæs in Winair believes that it may become cheaper to fly in the north in the future. Photo: Tove Bjørgaas / news While SAS was a couple of hundred kroner cheaper and Norwegian was around 1,100 kroner per passenger. – For Widerøe, it is an expensive operation up north with many small and short stays and not full flights. They must try to praise themselves as best they can. In addition, they have FOT routes that are regulated by the state. – It is also about competition and supply and demand. It has always been more expensive in the north than in the south, but that can change. Elnæs highlights two reasons why flight prices in the north may become cheaper: Norwegian’s acquisition of Widerøe. On 1 April, the government cuts the maximum price on the FOT routes. – Widerøe is going to adapt its route network and coordinate ticket prices to a greater extent, which could have a positive effect on prices as early as next year. It is still uncertain how the government’s price cuts will play out, but there will be an improvement in prices, he believes. Widerøe: There are cheaper tickets Widerøe writes in an email that they agree that the prices that Olsen refers to are expensive. At the same time, they specify that there are still tickets available for Easter at less than half the price, if the traveler is flexible with ticket type and travel time. Communications advisor in Widerøe, Linda Lindegaard Carlsen. Photo: Einar Aslaksen / Widerøe – The relevant flights the customer refers to are now sold out, but there are still cheaper tickets available for booking for Easter, says communications advisor Linda Lindegaard Carlsen. Widerøe has found a cheaper trip for the family at a price of NOK 20,529: With departure from Honningsvåg, via Tromsø and Bodø to Mosjøen on Monday 25 March, with return on Sunday 31 March. Widerøe presents this travel proposal as an example that there are cheaper flights between Honningsvåg and Mosjøen at Easter. Photo: Widerøe When asked why flight prices in Northern Norway are so expensive, Carlsen replies that it depends a lot on whether the route is on tender or is commercial. It is more expensive to fly a commercial route than to fly a tender route, she explains. As far as Olsen’s journey is concerned, two out of three flights each way are commercial routes. – The reason why the prices on these routes are higher than the prices on the tender routes is because we fly the commercial routes without subsidies from the government. Here, the prices reflect what the flight actually costs. – The costs are affected by several factors: we fly small planes with fewer seats, there are 70 per cent higher fuel prices in Finnmark and a huge increase in taxes and duties.
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Family of three has to shell out tens of thousands of kroner – news Nordland
