Norwegian Air Shuttle is back at Stockholm Arlanda (ARN) after five months away from Sweden’s main international gateway.

The carrier has resumed nonstop service from ARN to Alicante (ALC) and Malaga (AGP) in Spain, alongside flights to Norway’s capital Oslo (OSL). All three routes are currently 2X-weekly.

The airline plans to gradually increase the number of departures and resume more service in Sweden as demand increases and travel restrictions ease.

“Naturally, it is really good news that Norwegian, one of our biggest customers before the pandemic, has returned to Sweden and is providing service at our airport,” said Elizabeth Axtelius, director of aviation business at the airport's operator Swedavia.

“We look forward to them expanding their route network when the situation eases, and the world and our passengers are ready to travel again.”

Axtelius said she was “cautiously optimistic” about the summer season but said much will depend on the speed of COVID-19 vaccination rollout programs and the easing of travel restrictions.

Norwegian will compete with Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) on the routes to ALC and AGP, and with SAS and Air Leap on the OSL service.

OAG Schedules Analyser data shows that Norwegian served 60 destinations from ARN two years ago (w/c April 8, 2019), offering almost 85,000 departure seats.

However, the LCC has shrunk to a fraction of its former size after its operations were derailed by the pandemic. The company is currently attempting to restructure itself while under creditor protection.

The OAG data shows Norwegian is this week (w/c April 5, 2021) offering about 47,000 seats across its entire network, compared with almost 880,000 during the same week in 2019.

Photo credit: Nigel Howarth / Aviation Week