I've been meaning to do a bit of exploration into the Norwegian airlines, and my interest was revived this past week, due to a sequence of excellent images of the "Tail Fin Heroes" themed (Norwegian) B738s seen here lately...[Side Note: Norwegian's unmistakable livery consisting of a red nose, followed by a thin blue ribbon and white fuselage, with the vertical stabilizer, initially featuring historically distinctive Norwegians, Swedes, Danes, and Finns, has since expanded to individuals of other nationalities across Europe and the Americas..See images below.]...Plus, coincidentally, I've been recently watching a few Episodes of the Netflix mini-series called "A Storm for Christmas", depicting a curious set of intertwined characters and events all filmed on location at Oslo Airport in Norway (mostly inside the terminals), while a dangerous (winter) storm is raging outside...bringing (holiday) air-traffic to a complete halt...and leaving transit passengers (and a Pilot) stranded in the Airport...

Anyway, in this post, I focus on "Norwegian Air Shuttle", trading as "Norwegian", (and "NAS" for short, see e.g., the Tail of the legacy "NAS" Fokker 50, in the first shot below, for this logo). The "Norwegian" of today is not to be confused with the historic "Norwegian Air Lines" of bygone years, Norway's oldest and original flag carrier, founded in 1927, that would eventually lose its identity by becoming one of the 3 country-specific founders (Denmark, Sweden and Norway) to create, in 1948, today's SAS. But there is also an indirect connection between "NAS" and "SAS". "NAS" was originally founded, in January 1993 (it will be exactly 30 years old in the upcoming New Year, January 2023), to take over the role of the regional subsidiary "Busy Bee" operating for (then) Braathens (or Braathens SAFE) - see one shot of Braathens B737-500 below. Braathens, for most of its history, was the largest domestic airline in Norway. Following Busy Bee's bankruptcy in December 1992, NAS took over three leased Fokker 50 aircraft (see one F50 shot below), and thus was born its very first (official) flight operations. It would later go on to deploy 737-300s (one shot below) and 737-500s, prior to being 738-exclusive. In 2001, Braathens and SAS would merge to first become "SAS Braathens", and then later renamed to only "SAS". Until that juncture, "NAS" was in wet lease agreement with its mother company Braathens, i.e., fully dependent on it for (a/c, crew, maintenance), but after that juncture, with its mother company bought and dissolved in SAS, NAS would be forced to grow up in a hurry, by itself, and be independent ...operating routes and selecting a/c in its own right.  Around that time too, in September 2002, this little "bold" (LCC) airline would re-brand itself as "Norwegian"...to become Norway's de-facto (and largest airline), and, in fact, the second-largest airline in Scandinavia, behind SAS. In the decade (2010-2020), with ambitious visions, it would next add long-haul routes (New York City / Bangkok) to its operations using Dreamliner 787s (recall its "regional" roots very similar to SWA and Ryanair). For fun, I've also included a what-if "NAS" B767-300 "Hero" livery (see 5th shot below), if "NAS" had not started directly with B787s for its long-haul operations.  

By 2017, Norwegian's rapid (fleet) expansions had made it Scandinavia's largest airline...! Unfortunately, as of now, in 2022, both "NAS" (and "SAS" too) have been bracing through a volatile and unstable period of existence in their aviation sectors...e.g., "NAS" has now terminated all its long-haul operations and reverted back to its original (short-haul) roots...still with an impressive fleet of 737s (70 "-800"s (see one shot below) and up to (planned) 80 "MAX8"s). NAS's now-dead "low-cost long-haul" model, though, was supposedly considered attractive to travelers, and was operated with sparkling new 787s, could not be sustained, due to impacts of the Pandemic and other (competitive) business factors.

Interestingly, however, from the remnants of these very same now-discontinued (budget-priced) long-haul operations of "Norwegian", has now arisen another new entrant (and a separate) airline...a Norwegian too, based out of Arendal, Norway, called "Norse Atlantic" (see 2 pictures of its 789, below), which mostly uses the same aircraft that were previously in Norwegian's (long-haul) fleet, and flies many of the same routes as Norwegian's (past) long-haul operations. We should wish Norse well...after all a $110 one-way flight across the pond, in the Dreamliner, may be worth considering...🙂...but only the market forces would tell for sure of its future success. I was impressed to read on their website, "Our Dreamliners...are some of the most modern, efficient aircraft in the skies. Our brand is inspired by the Oseberg longship in Oslo, a symbol of the long-lasting ingenuity of Viking explorers. Here at Norse, we consider our aircraft longships, following the tradition of Norsemen and Norsewomen, who explored the world generations before..."...Surely, no one can dispute that heritage...with the legendary explorer "Roald Amundsen" coming to mind... (however, we'll no longer get to see the "Heroes" on the Norwegian 787 Tails...so, I've included a few NAS 789 pictures below...including two with the iconic British singer/Hero "Freddie Mercury"....and two of "NAS" UNICEF...)

Thanks for viewing and comments are welcome...!!

Merry Christmas... (while I now go out to see how much snow the overnight blizzard has left for me to clean...🙂...) ...!

Edited December 23, 20223 yr by P_7878

Fine set of Boeings - and other..

cheers 😉

Whew! That's a really extensive tracing of Norwegian airline lineages. Glad to see you were up to the task! 🙂 My only real-life encounters were flights on Braathens S-A-F-E 737-200s,  skip-hopping their way north up the coast. Got as far as Bodo and Tromso.

Very nice shots! Power Boeing!!! 😉 

Thank you much, folks...!!

 

16 hours ago, John F said:

.... My only real-life encounters were flights on Braathens S-A-F-E 737-200s,  skip-hopping their way north up the coast. Got as far as Bodo and Tromso.

Glad you've made it that far north in the world as a tourist.... John...! As I see it on the MAP, it'll be hard to go any further north than Tromsø...🙂... around there....... (Anyway, I need to first hit some cold and snowy (and beautiful) lands, closer to home, such as Alaska....but those countries remain on my wish-list...)

Found a Braathens SAFE 737-200, that you travelled on, ready in my CS folder... (one shot of it, below, at Bodø Airport, ENBO) .... about to lift off for Tromsø...🙂.... Looks like Braathens, along with United, was among the first to order the -200s variant from Boeing, in 1965, and deployed these a/c up there, within a year or so of United around here...impressive ...

Thanks for the comment...!

Very nice P!  Well sone sir.

13 hours ago, Jack_Sawyer said:

Very nice P!  Well done sir.

Appreciated, Jack, for the kind words. All the best for the holidays ...!!

11 minutes ago, P_7878 said:

Appreciated, Jack, for the kind words. All the best for the holidays ...!!

Cheers.