"The combination of Wideroe's network along the coast and in northern Norway and Norwegian's large European route network will create many new travel opportunities for our common customers," Wideroe CEO Stein Nilsen said in a statement.

Privately owned Wideroe, Scandinavia's largest regional airline, serves short-haul routes in a sparsely populated region with few train lines and challenging geography.

A slimmed-down version of Norwegian Air emerged from bankruptcy proceedings last year with no long-distance network.

(Reporting by Victoria Klesty; editing by Jason Neely)