page_title: History of Widerøe
section_title: Competition
hierarchical_section_title: History of Widerøe / Competition
caption_attribution_description: English: Widerøe Q400
context_page_description: Widerøe, a regional airline based in Norway, was established by Viggo Widerøe, Einar Isdahl and Arild Widerøe on 19 February 1934. The airline started off with a combination of scheduled, aerial photography and general aviation services using seaplanes. It lost its route concessions to Norwegian Air Lines in 1935 and was subsequently bought by that company, for whom it operated several minor routes. World War II hindered Widerøe from operating any flights between 1939 and 1945. After the war Widerøe started flying various seaplane routes that were too small for DNL and its successor, Scandinavian Airlines System. These routes were commonly flown using Noorduyn Norseman and de Havilland Canada Otter aircraft. During the 1960s Widerøe attempted operating Douglas DC-3s for charter flights, but soon closed those operations.
  A national network of regional airports started being constructed in the late 1960s and Widerøe was awarded the right to operate the subsidized routes. From 1968 the airline introduced the Twin Otter, which it eventually operated a dozen of. From 1981 de Havilland Canada Dash 7s were introduced on the main routes.
context_section_description: The Norwegian aviation market was deregulated from 1 April 1994. Widerøe saw the opportunity to start a series of international routes. The first was a twice-weekly service from Kirkenes to Murmansk Airport in Russia using a Twin Otter which started in June 1994. A route from Bodø to Hemavan Airport and Umeå Airport in Sweden started on 2 February 1995 and a summer route from Bergen to Sumburgh Airport in Shetland started in May. The Swedish service was terminated later the same year. SAS terminated its route from Oslo to Göteborg Landvetter Airport in Sweden in 1996, which was immediately taken over by Widerøe. A route from Oslo to Berlin Tempelhof Airport commenced on 1 April 1997, and from 26 October a route was flown daily from Stavanger to Glasgow Airport and a daily service between Stavanger and Bergen. However, the Glasgow service was terminated on 14 November 1999.
  Six airlines—all Norwegian—bid in the inaugural PSO tender. Widerøe was the cheapest contender for all packages and reduced their annual subsidy from NOK 277 to 213 million, thus securing all PSO routes in the country from 1 April 1997 to 31 March 2000. The SAS Group bought Fred. Olsen's 63.2-percent stake of Widerøe in November 1997, costing NOK 325 million. The purchase was split in two with SAS executing an option for 29 percent in late 1998. SAS announced plans to better integrate the two airline's services, with particular focus on Gardermoen and Torp. SAS articulated in June the following year that they were considering reducing their stake in Widerøe and listing it on Oslo Stock Exchange; nothing came of the plans.
  Oslo Airport, Gardermoen opened on 8 October 1998, the same day as Fornebu closed. All of Widerøe's Oslo flights were moved from Fornebu to Gardermoen. Widerøe experienced competition from Braathens from late 1999 when they introduced services from Sandefjord to Bergen and Stavanger. Widerøe introduced daily flights between Sandefjord and Stockholm Arlanda Airport from 6 April. Braathens terminated its Sandefjord services from 1 November, stating that it was providing the most deficit of any route. Widerøe won a one-year PSO contract to fly from Fagernes Airport, Leirin from 1 August, but failed to renew the contract the following year. Following KLM UK's termination of its Stavanger to Aberdeen Airport route, Widerøe started a daily service from 7 November.
  For the second PSO contract period, which started on 1 April 2000, Widerøe lost two routes: the Vardø service by Arctic Air and the Florø service was taken over by Coast Air. The latter forced Widerøe to move its technical base for southern Norway to Gardermoen. The Røst contract was awarded to GuardAir, but the company folded in 2001 and Widerøe resumed the route. The Murmansk service was terminated in 2000, and Berlin followed suit on 1 August 2001. Braathens terminated its service to Røros Airport on 1 January 2001 and Widerøe won the subsequent PSO contract which ran from 1 August 2001 to 31 March 2003. Widerøe announced in June 2001 that they had ordered three 72-seat Dash 8-Q400s, with an option for a further five.
  The SAS Group took full ownership of Widerøe in May 2002, paying NOK 131.2 million to raise their stake to 96.4 percent, after purchasing 33.1 percent of the company from Nordlandsbanken, Torghatten and Fylkesbaatane. After the 2002 acquisition of Braathens by the SAS Group, they decided to operate Braathens' regional routes in Western Norway with the SAS Commuter's Fokker 50 aircraft until then operating in Northern Norway. The routes in Western Norway were until then operated by Norwegian Air Shuttle. SAS Commuter left its operations in Northern Norway to Widerøe, who took over all the SAS Group's regional routes north of Trondheim. This consisted of the routes from Tromsø to Alta, Lakselv and Kirkenes and the route from Harstad/Narvik to Tromsø, Bodø and Trondheim from October 2002. Widerøe took over SAS's route from Trondheim to Copenhagen on 27 October.
  In the 2003 PSO contract Widerøe lost the right to fly to Røst and Narvik to Kato Airline. Norwegian Air Sh
caption: Dash 8-Q400
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