‘Western and Northern Norway have both seen sharp increases in demand for tourist-focused routes in recent years. The expansion to the route network will therefore be important for bringing these regions closer to the outside world, while also strengthening already-established travel flows,’ says Gaute Skallerud Riise, Vice President Traffic Development at Avinor.

Initially, passengers travelling to and from Frankfurt and the Norwegian destinations of Stavanger, Bergen and Tromsø will be able to enjoy the enhanced route network.

Happy to be back

As of 2 May 2022, Lufthansa will be launching seven new departures a week between Frankfurt and Stavanger. The Bergen-Frankfurt route will increase from eight to ten weekly departures on 27 May 2022, and the Frankfurt-Tromsø route will double from one to two weekly departures for the summer season beginning on 29 May. Additionally, a new once-weekly route between Munich and Bergen will launch in July 2022, and the re-establishment of the route between Bergen and Zürich will start on the June the 2^nd on a two-weekly basis and operated by Edelweiss.

Until 2015, Lufthansa operated regular scheduled flights to Stavanger.

‘After seven years without a presence in Stavanger, we are happy to finally be back. We are seeing increasing demand from leisure travellers as well as corporate customers, especially among those in the oil and energy sectors,’ says Flemming Nordestgaard, General Manager for Norway at Lufthansa.

Great routes for business travellers

From Frankfurt, Lufthansa offers a global route network and these new, more frequent departures from Norway will be very attractive to the business community.

‘Good access to key markets is a vital factor to creating value in these regions. In particular, this route expansion will boost access to the German market, although it will also feed through to the world markets thanks to Lufthansa’s extensive, global route network,’ says Skallerud Riise.

Crucial for tourism in Norway

Every direct route linking Norway to the world is of tremendous value to the Norwegian tourism industry.

‘This is a fantastic early Christmas present for the tourist sector in the region. Western Norway has much of what consumers will be drawn to in future, but the competition is going to be tough. These routes will make it easier to pick us. We are now going to do everything we can to show the Germans and other Europeans what this region has to offer all year round,’ concludes Stein Ove Rolland, CEO of Fjord Norway.