30/07/10, 05:47:33 EDT

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Budget airline to bank

aftenposten.no

Norwegian Air Shuttle has stepped up its duel with Scandinavian airline SAS by introducing a bonus program linked its own bank.

Earlier this year Norwegian applied to open a bank, and the company now plans to link up the massive web traffic generated by interest in ticket sales to combine a bonus program credit card and their own Internet bank.

"We have one of the biggest web sites in Norway today. We have two to three million visitors in every month. We now hope that we can connect this traffic to bank services," NAS CEO Bjørn Kjos told financial web site E24.

A credit card associated with a Norwegian bank account will allow the bearer to earn flight bonuses with every purchase.

"The more you use the card the cheaper you will be able to travel on our international flights," Kjos said.

In contrast to other bonus plans, the points will be available for use when and where the customer wants and there will be no fees or annual charges attached to the credit card, Kjos told new agency NTB. Flight bonus programs are not allowed in Norway and so bonus points would not be available for domestic flights.

Kjos predicted that in five years the Norwegian airlines bank would have the same position in the Internet bank market that NAS has today in Norwegian air traffic.

Norwegian's Internet bank will be a full service bank, and an account will be necessary in order to qualify for a credit card linked to the flight bonus plan, Kjos said.

 Printable Version  | published Oct 17, 2007