Norwegian Air seeks to fly Siberian Corridor in eastward push

Norwegian Air is lobbying its government to scrap a deal which prevents it from flying the "Siberian Corridor" over Russia, the shortest route between Scandinavia and Asia. Russia only allows one airline per country to use its airspace and under the terms of a 1956 Soviet-era deal with Denmark, Norway and Sweden only Scandinavian Airlines and Aeroflot can fly the route. Since Scandinavia is three countries and SAS, which is partly owned by all three, only flies direct to Asia from Denmark and Sweden, Norway should rework the deal, Norwegian Air argues. Europe's third-largest budget airline by passenger numbers after Ryanair and EasyJet has to take a longer, more expensive route for its flights to Thailand. Now Norwegian Air wants to fly elsewhere in Asia and its executives met Norway's foreign minister Boerge Brende on Tuesday to see if the deal could be replaced. "We have our planes ready to go and we want to start flying these direct routes to Asia as soon as possible, but we can't because of this incredibly outdated deal," its spokeswoman said. "Most of these Asian routes will never happen if we are not allowed to fly over Siberia. It would be so much more expensive that we haven't even bothered to do the maths." Norway's transport ministry said it plans to bring up the case during the first half of 2017.<br/>