Having survived a near-death experience during the Covid-19 lockdown, low-cost carrier Norwegian has unveiled plans to return to operation.

The airline will operate flights from London Gatwick and Edinburgh to Oslo and Copenhagen from July 1st.

London to Oslo will be operated seven times a week, London to Copenhagen six times a week, Edinburgh to Oslo and Copenhagen twice a week respectively.

Jacob Schram, Norwegian chief executive, said: “Feedback from our customers has shown that they are keen to get back in the air and resume their travels with Norwegian beyond the current domestic services that we have been operating.

“Norwegian is returning to European skies with the reintroduction of more aircraft to serve our key destinations which will ensure that we remain in line with competing carriers.

“As competition in the industry begins to recover over the summer period Norwegian will be in a position to continue to offer our customers great value and service while contributing to the gradual yet important return to normality for both the tourism sector and society as a whole.

“Safety remains our top priority and we have introduced a number of specific measures to further reduce the already low risk of infection on board.”

easyJet returned  to limited operation earlier this week.

Since April Norwegian has only operated eight aircraft on domestic routes in Norway.

Now another 12 aircraft will re-join the fleet and be put into operation across Scandinavia to serve our popular core destinations.

From July Norwegian will operate 76 routes across Europe from the airline’s Scandinavian hubs compared to the 13 domestic Norway only flights served today.

Other destinations include Spain, Greece and key European cities.

Further destinations and frequency increases will be announced in due course subject to passenger demand and government travel restrictions.