The Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications has received tenders to operate regional scheduled air services within Norway from seven air carriers:

• Coast Air AS, Norway
• KATO Airline AS, Norway
• Arctic Air AS, Norway
• Danish Air Transport AS, Denmark
• Norwegian Air Shuttle AS, Norway
• Widerøe's Flyveselskap ASA, Norway
• European Executive Express AB, Sweden

On May 10 ^th> 2002 The Ministry of Transport and Communicatons invited all EEA air carriers to submit tenders. The invitation to tender included 15 route areas, divided into 20 tenders. Ten route areas comprised a single tender and the remaining route areas comprised two tenders each. When a route area comprises two tenders and for some predefined combinations of routes, the carriers could combine route areas when submitting tenders.

The Ministry of Transport and Communications will now go through the tenders in order to choose which air carrier that will be awarded the exclusive right to operate the different routes. The choise of operator can at the earliest take place on August 19 ^th> 2002.

The exclusive right to operate a route will be awarded the tender requiring the lowest compensation for each route area and also fulfil the requirements set by the Ministry of Transport and Communications. These requirements include the public service obligations as to frequency, seating capacity, aircraft category and maximum fares.

Se also:
 The invitation to tender, May 10 ^th> 2002

Press release, May 10 ^th> 2002