A successful summer programme of flights between Shetland and Norway has paved the way for more flights next year.

Norwegian regional airline Wideroe’s six-week programme of flights between Sumburgh Airport and Oslo has been acclaimed as a success. The service carried almost 1,100 passengers between the start of July and its final flight of the year on Sunday 15 August.

The airline, a division of Scandinavian Airlines SAS, has operated two return flights a week between Oslo and Sumburgh on Sundays and Thursdays since 4 July, using 50-seat Dash 8 regional turboprop aircraft.

Nigel Flaws, Sumburgh Airport Manager said: “Wideroe’s summer flights have been well supported by people travelling from Shetland and inbound visitors from Norway . There are strong cultural and business links between Shetland and Scandinavia and with average load factors of more than 80% on the flights Wideroe has indicated that it will run the service again in 2005.”

Alex Johnson, Commercial and Marketing Manager at HIAL, said: “We believe there is potential to build more east-west air links between Shetland, Scandinavia and the Faroes and the successful summer programme with Wideroe demonstrates that there is a market there for this type of service.

“This is another example of the Scottish Executive’s Route Development Fund enabling airlines and airports to develop new routes and we are confident that this year’s service will be the foundation for more air links into Scandinavia,” said Mr Johnson.

In the year ending 31 March 2004, Sumburgh Airport handled more than 117,000 passengers and 8,500 aircraft movements.

ENDS