Submitted by Mike Grenville on Fri, 09 Jan 2004 15:48

Telenor and the airline company "Norwegian" have entered into a partnership that enables customers to order and purchase air tickets for "Norwegian" flights from their mobiles.

Norwegian already operates as a ticketless airline for all bookings. "Buying a plane ticket will now be just as simple as buying a cinema ticket. The fact that mobile customers have now been given the opportunity to purchase travel, emphasizes the most important aspect of MobileCommerce - independence of time and place," said CEO of Telenor Mobil, Ingvild Myhre.

"Although we already have more than 500,000 registered users, mobile commerce is still in its early phases. Norwegian are creative and are showing a lot of initiative when they make use of a solution that is already found in most Norwegians' pockets, said Ingvild Myhre of Telenor Mobil.

"This is an exciting use of technology that will simplify ticket booking and check-in for most people, and it will also contribute to keep costs down, said Market Director Carl Størmer of Norwegian. With the help of SMS messages, users may find, book and pay for tickets. Their receipts, which will be issued in the form of SMS messages, will be used as valid tickets when travellers check in. This makes it easier for us and for our customers - and we will be able to keep or prices low," said Størmer.

Norwegian operates from eight major airports in Norway, in addition to flights from Oslo and Bergen to European destinations such as Oslo-London/Stansted, Spain, Portugal, and Grenoble in France.

www.norwegian.no

www.telenor.com