Temporary Low Cost Travel Cafe

[attitudetravel]

Another Scandinavian low cost carrier has disappeared with the absorption of Fly Nordic into the Norwegian brand.

Fly Nordic started life in 2000 as Nordic Airlink before changing its name in 2004.

In 2003, shortly before the rebrand, Finnair bought a majority stake in the carrier and later bought the airline outright, effectively rendering Fly Nordic a Sweden-based low cost subsidary of Finland's flag-carrier.

Fly Nordic had big plans for expanding its route network and becoming the largest Scandinavian low cost carrier in terms of routes and destinations. However, in 2007, the carrier was bought up by Norwegian which had expanded more quickly and was already operating flights out of bases in Poland as well as out of Norway.

The brand-merger means that Norwegian now operates low cost route networks out of three countries: Norway, Poland and Sweden.
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Alan Lansdowne
Editor, attitudetravel.com

[attitudetravel]

Consolidation and fallout appears to be occurring earlier and faster in the Scandinavian low cost aviation sector than in similar sectors elsewhere.

There used to be three major Danish low fare airlines (Sterling, Maersk Air and Snowflake); two major Finnish low fare airlines (Flying Finn and Blue 1); and three major Swedish low fare (Snowflake, FlyMe and FlyNordic)

But...

January 2004: Flying Finn files for bankruptcy
Late 2004: SAS closes Snowflake SE & Snowflake DK
September 2005: Maersk Air bought by Sterling
October 2005: Maersk Air rebrands as Sterling Blue and later as Sterling
March 2007: FlyMe files for bankruptcy
April 2007: FlyNordic bought by Norwegian
April 2008: FlyNordic rebrands as Norwegian

Now, amongst the major low cost carriers operating out of Nordic countries, there is only one Icelandic low cost airline (Iceland Express), one Finnish low cost airline (Blue 1) and two pan-Scandinavian low cost airlines: Norwegian and Sterling.
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Alan Lansdowne
Editor, attitudetravel.com

[attitudetravel]

Hmm. Having said that, isn't it actually the case that in France every year one new low cost airline starts-up and the one that started up the year before goes bankrupt?

That's arguably a lot worse for low cost travellers than what has happened in the last couple of years in Scandinavia. (But what can you do as a start-up LCC when TGV is piling the pressure on from one side and Air France is piling it on from the other?)
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Alan Lansdowne
Editor, attitudetravel.com

[attitudetravel]

The unsung low cost airline in Sweden of course is the Sverigeflyg group which now includes:

1) Blekingeflyg
2) Gotlandsflyg
3) Kalmarflyg
4) Kullaflyg
5) Sundsvallsflyg
6) fly smaland

and has partnered in the past with

7) Umeaflyg

Sverigeflyg almost never gets mentioned...
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Alan Lansdowne
Editor, attitudetravel.com