Widerøe scoops almost all northern Norway PSOs

Widerøe (WF, Bodø) will provide all of the public service obligation (Forpliktingar til offentleg tenesteyting – FOT) routes in northern Norway for the two-year period from April 1, 2022 – except one, in the far north between the city of Tromsø and Lakselv village, which will be offered by DAT – Danish Air Transport (DX, Kolding), Norway’s Ministry of Transport summarised in a statement.

The tenders for the contracts, which have been split into 14 groups and are valid until March 31, 2024, were announced last September and companies in all European Union or European Economic Area member states were invited to submit bids to operate them.

However, Widerøe was the only bidder for all but three of the route areas in the aviation-dependent north of the country, listed below, and was automatically nominated as the operator, the ministry said.

Widerøe and DAT competed for the three of the areas, covering routes from Lakselv, Andenes (Andøya), and Harstad-Narvik. For Lakselv, DAT submitted the tender with the lowest claim for a state subsidy, while the Norwegian carrier did so for the other two.

Widerøe was awarded the following routes:

between Kirkenes, Vadsø, Vardø, Båtsfjord, Berlevåg, Mehamn, Honningsvåg, Hammerfest, and Alta;
Hasvik-Tromsø, Hasvik-Hammerfest, and Sørkjosen-Tromsø;
Andenes-Bodø, Andenes-Tromsø;
Harstad/Narvik-Tromsø, Harstad/Narvik-Bodø;
Stokmarkness-Bodø, Stokmarknes-Tromsø, which continues an earlier contract that Widerøe won;
Svolvaer-Bodø;
Leknes-Bodø;
Røst-Bodø;
Brønnøysund-Bodø, Brønnøysund-Trondheim;
Sandnessjøen-Bodø, Sandnessjøen-Trondheim;
Mo i Rana-Bodø, Mo i Rana-Trondheim;
Mosjøen-Bodø, Mosjøen-Trondheim; and
Namsos-Trondheim, Roervik-Trondheim,
which left Lakselv-Tromsø for DAT.