– For Norwegian, this is a work that has been going on for a while, and which we started last year. We are very happy that we have received a letter of intent. Then there is a piece of work that will take place over the autumn, says CEO Geir Karlsen of Norwegian at a press conference on Tuesday morning. The agreement means that travelers will be able to book their entire trip through one of the two airlines, even if you have to change companies along the way. You can also combine travel at home and abroad all the way to the destination. This is called in English interlining. – The letter of intent means that we will expand the ticket cooperation between Widerøe and Norwegian, says CEO Stein Nilsen in Widerøe to news. – The big advantage for customers is that you get help from the airlines if irregularities occur, and that the companies will take responsibility for completing the entire journey. No connection with the SAS strike Widerøe currently has ticket cooperation with 65 other airlines, such as British Airways, KLM and Air France. In 2018, they entered into a collaboration with Norwegian on travel on the short-haul network in Norway. – Then there has been a discussion about whether we should expand this collaboration, but naturally this has not been at the top of the agenda during the pandemic. Therefore, it is very gratifying that we can now take the next step. Widerøe already has such a collaboration with SAS, and says that this will be continued. – Does the SAS strike have anything to do with the agreement being entered into right now? – No, this process started long before that. The specific discussions are six months back and three months ago we in Widerøe decided that this was the right way to go. Then there has been so much else in this industry that we only now, with a little holiday break, had time to finalize this agreement, Nilsen says. Launched first at Widerøe in the autumn There is still some technical work left with the ticket solution, but Nilsen says he hopes that the first passengers can book the first trips in late autumn or early winter. Nilsen says that the ticket collaboration will first be launched on Widerøe’s website. – Technically, we are the ones who can reach the market first with a solution, so in the first instance this will be launched at Widerøe. Later, Norwegian will also have this function in its ticket system. While Widerøe is part of the SAS scheme EuroBonus, Norwegian has its own Cash Point system. Nilsen says that these bonus schemes are company-specific. – You can get Eurobonus points on Widerøe routes. But you do not get it if you travel on Norwegian routes. – Then we will probably think through how we will further develop this collaboration. Greater reach Norwegian CEO of Geir Karlsen says that they are very satisfied with the cooperation agreement. – We know that very many of our customers first fly Norwegian and then fly with Widerøe, or vice versa. Then we want to be able to offer a better product. And with this collaboration, we make it happen. – This is part of a strategy that we have put in Norwegian. We already have a collaboration with Widerøe today, and now we will expand this. For customers, this means that they get a better product and a greater reach in our international network.
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Widerøe and Norwegian enter into a collaboration on tickets – news Nordland
