As Norwegian is banned from utilising Russian air space for their Asian routes, the company will probably use London (Gatwick) as the base for their Asian endeavour.
SAS has a monopoly on using Russian airspace, forcing Norwegian to use the longer, more expensive south-eastern route
“the whole thing is ridiculous” CEO Bjorn Kjos said at Norwegians quarterly presentation Thursday.
Even without the necessary permits to use Russian airspace, the company can still look east according to Aftenposten
” Norwegian is not restricted to flying from Oslo, but we would like to do so. The market outside Norway is much larger, and we are investing very heavily from other bases, London included. So I do not disregard the possibility of starting new routes eastward from England before Norway”, says Kjos. He will not blame the Russians for the lack of clarification regarding the permits.
“The Norwegian government has the key to resolve this issue, and it should have topmost priority as it would generate a lot of new jobs”, Kjos concludes.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
