Norwegian has today announced that they will re-establish their pilot base at Stockholm Arlanda Airport from Spring 2025. The base was previously closed during the global COVID-19 pandemic, and since then, the Swedish pilots were based at other Norwegian bases.
On Wednesday (November 13, 2024), Norwegian Air Shuttle announced the reopening of their pilot base at Stockholm Arlanda Airport by spring 2025. Previously the base was closed during the global COVID-19 pandemic, and in the interim, Swedish pilots were based at other Norwegian bases, primarily at the carrier’s Oslo base. The elimination of the aviation tax, a government that encourages and supports aviation, and an improving market in Sweden, all contributed to Norwegian’s decision to reopen the Arlanda pilot base.
In Wednesday’s announcement, Norwegian’s CEO, Geir Karlsen, said,
We are very happy to be able to start up a pilot base at Arlanda again and thus be able to offer our pilots a Swedish base so that they do not have to commute to one of our other bases. The aviation market in Sweden has improved significantly in the past year and that, combined with the fact that the aviation tax will disappear on 1 July 2025, means that we strongly believe in the Swedish aviation industry.”
Initially, Norwegian will base around 60 pilots at Arlanda, complementing the existing cabin crew base at Arlanda with around 200 team members. Currently, Norwegian has 12 bases across Europe, and recently re-established their crew base in Las Palmas.
Norwegian Air Shuttle was established in September 2002 with four domestic routes and has since carried over 300 million passengers. The airline Group, including Widerøe, is the largest in Norway and currently employs approximately 8,500 team members. Most employees are based in Norway in Oslo, Trondheim, Bergen and Stavanger, or at the company’s head office at Fornebu in Bærum. The carrier also has offices in Riga and Barcelona, as well as bases in Alicante and Malaga.
The Group’s fleet, including Widerøe, now totals 135 aircraft, with 86 Boeing 737-800 and 737-8 MAX jets in the Norwegian fleet, and 45 De Havilland Canada Dash-8 and four Embraer E190-E2s in Widerøe’s fleet. Widerøe Ground Handling also serves 41 Norwegian airports. Norwegian currently offers affordable flights on a short-haul network of destinations in the Nordic countries and to key European destinations. Norwegian aims to reduce CO2 emissions by 45 percent by 2030.
Source: Norwegian Air Shuttle/Mynewsdesk