From March 31, Widerøe will add a fourth weekly service to the Norwegian city, while simultaneously upgrading the operation to 78-seater Dash 8 Q400 aircraft.
The aircraft change means an extra 28 seats for sale in either direction on Mondays, Fridays and Sundays, with an additional service on Thursdays. Moreover, the Monday service will be moved from midday to evening, allowing business travellers to have a full day at work before flying.
All told, that means the number of seats rises from 150 in either direction to 312, while the journey time falls from one hour 50 minutes to one hour 25 minutes.
Stavanger is well known as centre of Norway’s offshore oil industry, but it also an attractive historic city and the gateway to beautiful coastal and fjord country.
Widerøe’s Director Regional Network, Sverre Sletten, said: “We’re delighted to be able to bring in these big improvements to our Newcastle service. We have operated to Newcastle for nearly ten years now and are confident the demand is there to sustain this growth.”
Dave Laws, Newcastle Airport Chief Executive, said: “The extra capacity and quicker flight time on Widerøe’s Stavanger route is fantastic news for passengers in the North East and Norway. The route plays a vital role in servicing and strengthening the region’s links with the gas and oil industries. It will offer business and leisure customers greater choice; we look forward to seeing this route prosper.”
Widerøe flights to Stavanger also offer easy connections to the network of sister airline, SAS, bringing other major Norwegian cities, including Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim and Sandefjord within easy reach.
Free flights to Norway if you buy an Explore Norway ticket
The new Thursday service offers excellent onward connections to Widerøe’s network of 40 domestic destinations, making Stavanger the ideal gateway from which to explore the country using the airline’s exceptional value Explore Norway Ticket, offering two weeks’ unlimited travel within Norway this summer.
The Explore Norway Ticket is available for travel between June 20 and August 28 2011 and can cover either the whole of Norway – which measures 1,100 miles from the south coast to the Russian border – or just one or two of three zones.
Explore Norway divides the dramatic beauty of Europe’s sixth largest country into three roughly equal parts. A one-zone ticket costs just £299; two zones £364; and all three zones, £428, with an additional week costing just £189. Children from two to 11 enjoy a 25 per cent discount when travelling with their parents or grandparents.
And the international flight from Newcastle to Stavanger is FREE to anyone buying an Explore Norway ticket.
www.wideroe.no/explorenorway.