Airline keeps trade hopes afloat
Jun 4 2008 by Andrew Mernin, The Journal
Andrew Mernin finds out why the region’s thriving trade links with Norway will not be drowned by the loss of DFDS’s Newcastle to Bergen ferry service.
WHEN the Vikings pillaged our shoreline thousands of years ago, they would arrive empty-handed and leave heavily laden with untold riches.
Many moons later however, fortunes were reversed as a ferry company started bringing oil-rich Norwegians to the North East ready to unload their wealth in our tourism, retail and entertainment sectors.
That was until earlier this month, when Danish ferry operator DFDS announced that the Newcastle to eastern Norway service will be forced to walk the plank amid crippling fuel costs and low customer demand.
The news will be a huge blow to the region’s hospitality industry when the route finally drops anchor this September. It will also see 270 onboard and 70 shoreline workers from Denmark, Norway and the North East lose their jobs.
But against the rising tide of doom and gloom surrounding our trade links with Norway, business leaders in the region have dismissed suggestions the announcement will drown our thriving relationship with Scandinavia.
The key to this optimism is the new Eastern Airways flight from Newcastle to Stavanger – which has proved popular since its launch last month.
The service is currently daily, but the gap left by the axing of the ferry route could lead to additional airborne services in the near future.
“Absolutely there could be an increase in the number of flights [from the North East to Norway],” says Mike Pedersen, of the Newcastle-based trade group the Norwegian Collaboration Centre.
“If you have a company you are going to go to Norway for a day or a couple of days of business, whereas the ship took 22 hours. From a tourism point of view the ending of the ferry route is not so good, but for a business point of view there is Eastern Airways.”
Meanwhile, Eastern Airways has hinted that the carrier could increase its Newcastle schedule.
A spokesperson for the airline said: “Since launching our non-stop daily service to Stavanger from Newcastle, bookings have been very encouraging. If the cancellation of the ferry service results in demand exceeding our forecasts, we will review our position and look at additional services.”
As if to highlight the strength of our trade ties with Norway in these uncertain times, business development group NOF Energy will today take 17 UK companies – almost half from the North East – to the land of the midnight sun for a raft of potentially lucrative meetings.
Organiser Joanne Leng said: “We are quite actively supporting Norwegian markets, and the main objective of the trip is to introduce companies to potential clients in Norway and to promote the North East as a place to do business and as an oil and gas service centre.”
Among those on the trip will be Newcastle-headquartered cable manufacturer CMP Products.
“It’s just a scouting mission but we are going to see if we can get our business in that market,” said European sales manager Kathleen Kearns.
“We produce electrical products for the oil and gas sector and there isn’t anyone who does this in Norway.”
Also eastward bound today will be Salem Tube.
Like CMP, the company believes it has the potential to corner the Norwegian market because it has no rivals in the Scandinavian country.
Managing director Howard Ions said: “Norway’s a new market for us although we have dealt with one or two companies there in the past. There are a lot of oil and gas companies out there, so it’s just a question of locating them.”
