Norwegian to Open Base at Oslo’s Sandefjord Torp Airport

Posted 17/11/2011

Budget carrier Norwegian is to further expand its presence in the Nordic region by opening a new base at Sandefjord Torp Airport, to the south of Oslo.  It will station a single Boeing 737-800 at the facility, which is a popular low-cost alternative for the Norwegian capital and wider geographic region.  The aircraft will facilitate a major expansion of its route network from Torp adding eight new routes to the two already served from the airport. 

"Norwegian sees a considerable potential both in the business and leisure segments in the greater Torp area, with its approximate population of 650,000. That’s why we will base one aircraft at Torp from March 2012 and launch eight new routes,” said Bjørn Kjos, Chief Executive Officer, Norwegian.

The airline already offers flights from Torp to Alicante and Malaga, both routes also operated by Ryanair.  It carried an estimated 12,000 O&D passengers on the Alicante route in the past year, giving it a 20 per cent share of this market.  From the start of the Northern Summer schedules in March 2012 it will add domestic links links to Bergen and Evenes and Trondheim; and international services to the German capital, Berlin, the Spanish destinations of Las Palmas and Palma de Mallorca; Antalya in Turkey and the southern French city of Nice.  

Norwegian will compete directly with regional carrier Wideroe on two of the domestic routes but will be the sole operator in the other markets.  The airline is currently the smallest of the five airlines that serve Torp with its two weekly flights providing just 2.0 per cent of the weekly seat capacity.  Wideroe, with its strong domestic network and frequent flights is the largest operator at Torp (48.4 per cent of the seat capacity), followed by Ryanair (25.2 per cent), Wizz Air (17.5 per cent) and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (6.9 per cent).

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