The airline is known for its distinctive livery of white with a red nose, with portraits of high achievers on the tail fins of its aircraft.

Each airline holds a unique air operator's certificate (AOC) but shares branding, corporate identity, and commercial functions.

Norwegian Air Shuttle (NAS) was founded on 22 January 1993 to take over the regional airline services produced by Busy Bee for Braathens in Western Norway.

This included the network of regional services between cities on the west coast of Norway operated on wet lease for the mother company.

[11] Following the purchase of Braathens by SAS, and the subsequent termination of its contracts, NAS announced in April 2002 that it would start domestic scheduled services as a low-cost carrier on the busiest routes.

[17][18] In October 2009, Norwegian had announced that it intended to start flights from Oslo to New York City and Bangkok, for which new intercontinental aircraft were required.

[citation needed] The parent company, Norwegian Air Shuttle, would later accept its first Boeing 737 MAX on 13 August 2018, the aircraft featuring Oscar Wilde on its tailfin.

[28][29] On 12 March 2019, the group grounded all of its Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, on the advice of the EASA, after the Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air crashes.

[36] On 27 April 2020, Norwegian outlined its plans to qualify for a governmental loan from the Norwegian state, including the conversion of its debt and leasing commitments to equity, its intention to reduce its active fleet to seven Boeing 737-800 aircraft operating solely on domestic routes within Norway, and to postpone operations outside of Norway (including to the rest of Europe and intercontinental long-haul flights) until March 2021.

[46] On 18 November 2020, Norwegian sought for bankruptcy protection in Ireland, where most of its remaining fleet was held,[47][48] in an attempt to restructure the organization which was expected to last five months.

[50] In 2021, restructuring continued in order to formulate a sustainable business plan that would allow the airline to both receive further governmental aid and investment from private enterprise.

In January 2021, Norwegian and its subsidiaries began to reduce their fleets by returning several aircraft, including long-haul Boeing 787s, to their respective lessors.

[59] In May 2021, Norwegian exited bankruptcy protection and its Irish examinership with the completion of its restructuring, following no objections from either of the high courts based in Ireland and Norway.

[71] Before the May 2020 recapitalization, the largest shareholder was HBK Holding AS (4.64% of shares as of 3 April 2020), whose majority owner is Bjørn Kjos, founder of the company.

[72] The Norwegian Group consists of the parent company and its directly or indirectly owned subsidiaries in Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

[88][89] Bjørn Kjos, the company's founder and previously its largest shareholder, stepped down as CEO on 11 July 2019, but continued to act as an adviser.

[94] Norwegian and UNICEF have conducted five humanitarian aid missions since 2014 to the Central African Republic, to Syrian refugees in Jordan, to Mali, Yemen and Chad.

Intra-Scandinavian routes, and in particular on "the capital triangle" between Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen, are attractive due to extensive traffic for both business and leisure travellers.

Over the next several years, Norwegian's long-haul operations with its Boeing 787s expanded to other European countries in addition to Scandinavia, with its route network eventually consisting of flights to Asia and the Americas from Europe.

[citation needed] Following the acquisition of Swedish low-cost airline FlyNordic in 2007, Norwegian inherited eight McDonnell Douglas MD-80 series aircraft.

[104] Norwegian's aircraft livery is white with a signal red nose and a dark blue stripe, the same colours as the flag of Norway.

The vertical stabilizer or tailfin is painted with a red tip and a dark blue stripe underneath containing the airline's website, with the rest of the talfin either blank white, or featuring depictions of historically significant individuals from across Europe and the Americas.

The airline offers in-flight entertainment by overhead screens, video on demand streamable to personal devices, and WiFi Internet access.

[107][108] When the airline previously operated widebody Boeing 787 aircraft through its integrated subsidiaries, it offered premium economy class seating and services.

As a low-cost airline, Norwegian charges additional fees for on-board food and drinks, checked baggage, payment by credit card and other non-core services.

[111] Norwegian's policies were also criticized by passengers who were left without food, drinks and blankets on board for up to 12 hours (available for pay but only with credit card).

The media first reported NAS's announced intention to open a base in Helsinki, from where it hired pilots on short-term contracts in Estonia rather than as employees within the company.

Then-CEO Bjørn Kjos appeared to inflame matters when he declared that NAS would no longer hire employees on Norwegian terms.

[122][123] In mid December 2013, NAS demanded that its Swedish non-contract flight attendants transfer to Proffice Aviation, an external staffing company, or face dismissal.

The situation led to the leader for the Swedish Left Party, Jonas Sjöstedt, to state that stricter regulation was needed for the use of staffing-companies in Sweden.