Norwegian Air Will Buy Widerøe, Airline Infamous For Leaking Their Own Price Mistake Fare

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Some 10 years ago, Widerøe Airlines sold thousands of tickets on United for just $127 round-trip to Europe and $287 round-trip to Israel.

But what was wild was that the airline’s own CEO and employees were busted leaking the price glitch info onto internet forums after they discovered that fuel surcharges were being dropped when they issued the tickets.

The glitch survived into the next day and even the next month.

The airline figured it would drum up publicity and they would pocket the sales commissions, but Star Alliance carriers Air Canada and United were not exactly pleased. The airline later tried denying they leaked it in local media, but it was clear that the original poster and other posters worked for Wideroe. Even Wideroe’s then-CEO Odd Langvatn got involved in helping advise people how to find the deal before deleting those posts.

Widerøe was an SAS/Star Alliance partner at the time, though SAS then sold off the airline between 2013-2016.

While the 2013 glitches were honored, when another airfare glitch came from Wideroe in 2014, the CCO Vice Director of Wideroe left a comment on DansDeals stating that the fare wouldn’t be honored this time, though people with issued tickets were able to travel.

You never do know when airline price mistakes are publicity grabs or actual mistakes.

And of course for research purposes only, I had to go to Norway and jump into the cockpit just to make sure this was a real airline and not just a group of internet forum trolls.

OK, and to see Polar Bears near the North Pole and experience the Northern Lights:

 

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Low-cost carrier Norwegian Air has now agreed to purchase Widerøe for $106 million. Norwegian struggled mightily during COVID and cut their long-haul routes, though they are still the 2nd largest airline in Norway behind SAS. Apparently, they must be doing better as they now have the capital to pull off this merger. Widerøe and Norwegian’s route networks are complimentary as Widerøe focuses on more remote and thin routes while Norwegian competes with SAS on larger routes. Only 6 of 107 Widerøe and Norwegian routes overlap with each other.

Oddly, Norwegian says that Widerøe will maintain its own brand despite the merger. Most airline mergers result in brand integration to realize cost savings, so this is an outlier. For example, JetBlue hopes to purchase Spirit and rebrand the entire operation as JetBlue. On the other hand, Widerøe will continue to maintain its own planes and livery and will still be based in Bodø. That’s a similar arrangement to how things were when they were owned by Norwegian competitor SAS.

Bodø is the entry point for the beautiful Lofoten Islands and I also had the chance to see the incredible Saltstraumen maelstrom and aviation museums during a connection there.

Norway is a truly beautiful country, have you made it there in your travels? Did you nab Widerøe-issued tickets back in the day?