Norwegian can trace its history back to 1966, when it was founded as Busy Bee. This name was dropped in favour of Air Executive Norway, though was re-adopted in 1980. A Fokker F.27 of Busy Bee is pictured at Birmingham Airport in August 1989. The carrier went into liquidation in 1992 and the present-day Norwegian Air Shuttle - which now trades as Norwegian - was formed from the remnants of Busy Bee in 1993.

Prior to operating an all-Boeing 737 fleet, Norwegian Air Shuttle also flew six Fokker 50s mostly for Braathens.

As well as growing 'organically', Norwegian has also opted to buy Swedish carrier Fly Nordic, though the purchase has not yet received regulatory approval. Should the deal go ahead, Norwegian intends to maintain the FlyNordic brand. Pictured is one of the latter carrier's McDonnell Douglas MD-83s, SE-RDV.

Some of the airline's aircraft also act as 'flying billboards', such as Boeing 737-3J5, LN-KKY, which is used to advertise Acta, an independent financial adviser in the Nordic savings market.

In 2006 Norwegian carried 5.1 million passengers using 22 aircraft on 87 routes. It intends to continue to grow its network and will add 53 Boeing 737s to its fleet over the next few years.

Norwegian has painted prominent national figures on the tails of several aircraft in its fleet. One of them features the actress and figure skater Sonja Henie who won three Olympic Gold Medals, was World Champion ten times and European Champion six times. She died in October 1969.