Startup Flyr expands international network

Norwegian startup Flyr is launching three new international routes from Oslo in October and increasing frequencies on flights to two leisure destinations in Spain.

The carrier, which is backed by industry veteran Erik Braathen, plans to begin flying to Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) on Oct. 14. Services to Copenhagen (CPH) and Rome Fiumicino (FCO) start a day later. All three new routes will be offered twice a week.

“We listen to our customers—and many wanted Flyr routes to Copenhagen, Paris and Rome,” Flyr commercial director Thomas Ramdahl said.

According to data provided by OAG Schedules Analyser, the airline will face strong competition to all three new destinations, particularly from Norwegian and SAS Scandinavian Airlines.

For the week commencing Sept. 20, Norwegian flies from OSL to CPH up to 3X-daily, to CDG 2X-weekly and FCO 4X-weekly. SAS serves the same three routes up to 8X-daily, 4X-weekly and 3X-weekly respectively.

In addition, Air France operates OSL-CDG nine times per week, while Wideroe will provide indirect competition by offering Oslo Torp (TRF)-CPH flights four times per week.

As well as opening three new routes, Flyr is increasing frequencies to Alicante (ALC) and Malaga (AGP) from Oct. 12 and 13 respectively. Both routes will become 3X-weekly, up from the current 1X-weekly service to ALC and 2X-weekly to AGP.

Flyr’s inaugural domestic service took to the skies on June 30 between Oslo and Tromsø (TOS), while international flights began on Aug. 21. As well as serving ALC and AGP, the airline also flies to Nice (NCE) in France.

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When it launched in June, Flyr said its ambition is to “reverse the trend in aviation with increased use of outsourcing and labor from low-cost countries.”

“We are starting an airline with blank sheets, which we want to build together with all our employees and unions,” CEO Tonje Wikstrøm Frislid said at the time. “An important building block in this work is our model for profit sharing, which will include all employees in Flyr on equal terms, not just management.”

Photo credit: Flyr

David Casey

David Casey is Editor in Chief of Routes, the global route development community's trusted source for news and information.