Scandinavian football supporters are celebrating while Liverpudlians can now visit Norway more easily than ever before.
Norway's domestic carrier Widerøe has announced the launch of a new route from Bergen to Liverpool. The twice-weekly route will start from August 17.
Norwegian airport operator Avinor says it is Scandinavia's first connection to Liverpool. Widerøe will operate the route using its fleet of new 114-seat E190-E2s. It currently has two of these planes with one on order.
High football traffic expected
Widerøe expect there to be high demand for the new service among Norwegian fans of Liverpool and Everton, two of the UK's biggest football clubs. Premier League football is insanely popular in Norway and Liverpool especially so.
Supporters of this year's Champions League finalists number around 40,000 in Norway, and that's only those who have joined the official supporters clubs. A big chunk of those live in Bergen, according to airport operator Avinor.
The announcement should boost business links between the maritime industry in Bergen and the Liverpool region, with the energy industry also set to benefit.
A new tourist destination from Liverpool
Around 1.5 million people live in the Liverpool City Region, the economic and political area of England centred on Liverpool. The first ever scheduled flight to Norway from Liverpool John Lennon Airport should provide a boost for Bergen and the fjord region.
Liverpudlians are in for a treat. Bergen offers everything from its UNESCO World Heritage site Bryggen to oddities such as the Fantoft Stave Church and even a leprosy museum. Best of all: It's one of the best bases for exploring the Norwegian fjords.
First Scandinavian connection
“Announcing Widerøe’s fifth new route from Bergen this year is testament to the confidence our partner has in the growing popularity of our region,” Jasper Spruit, vice president for traffic development at Avinor, told Standby Nordic. “Indeed, this route will be the first Scandinavian connection to a significant number of energy businesses located in the UK maritime city.”
He continues: “Scandinavians are great lovers of football, so it feels like we’re winning the World Cup by being able to offer supporters a direct link to the home of two of their favourite teams. In fact, I understand Bergen holds the largest number of Liverpool supporters in Scandinavia.”
I am not writing this to contradict your post, just give it some proportion if facts since I come from Liverpool and live there.
2011 Poulation of Liverpool City area (not surrounding) was 466,000
2016 the population fell to 484,000
2018 the population has again fallen back to a slightly less than census of 463,000.
Merseyside is the county in which Liverpool is located. There is no such thing as the greater Liverpool city region. It’s just a relatively small area from North Liverpool (LFC and EFC) to South Liverpool (John Lennon Liverpool Airport). The Liverpool area is that area within the city limits only. Merseyside is the county in which Liverpool is located, it includes other towns and villages, but are not part of the City of Liverpool. These other places have their own census, and many of them are now being placed in their former counties for example Lancashire.
Liverpool now the super cruise liners docking at the port city, unlike anywhere else in the UK. Despite this, brexit is really hurting the city massively, and jobs are being slashed everywhere, to the point people leave the city to find work elsewhere either elsewhere in the UK or abroad, particularly Europe.
As regards to Liverpool Football club, they have a relatively small home base of supporters. Generally those that do not go to the match. According to Liverpool FC, the vast majority of their supporters are indeed Norwegians and Chinese, with a small amount from Liverpool.
On the other hand, Everton FC have far more home support and are considered the working man’s club and the oldest club in the city. If it wasn’t for Everton there would be no Liverpool FC playing on Everton’s old ground Anfield, where it not for a despute on how much should be paid to lease the land back in the late 1800’s.
Everton’s support is mainly home based with a few hundred from the Wirral, North Wales and Ireland, but the vast majority of supporters are from the city. Our (Everton) ground is sold out pretty much every single match at Goodison, and there is now a waiting list in the thousands for season tickets.
Thanks, but I think the folk who work at the Liverpool City Region combined authority might disagree with you about whether they exist or not 🙂 The point of quoting the wider population is to show that there are 1.5 million people who now live within easy reach of a flight to Bergen. The population of Liverpool itself is completely irrelevant. As for Everton fans who live in Liverpool – fine, but again, completely irrelevant to the topic of a Liverpool to Bergen flight…
This is great news, thank you David.
Did Widerøe say when the timetable would be announced and when we can book?
Ignore Aron. He’s hoping for an argument about football. I don’t think that LFC has ever said that they only have a small number of liverpudlian fans!
Thanks again for the continued news.
Tickets are on sale now as far I know 🙂
Good news – but not the first Scandinavian connection to Norway – Ryanair flew for years to Oslo Torp from Liverpool, until a spat between them and the Norwegian government caused them to pull a number of roots, and force the closure of Oslo Rygge airport.