Europe’s New Low Cost Airline Alliance

If a new, low-cost airline alliance gets off the ground in Europe this year, it could revolutionize budget air travel.

The founder of Norwegian Air, Bjørn Kjos, told CNN Money his airline may soon finalize partnership deals with other low-cost airlines. This would open up a network of budget flights to passengers on partner airlines like Ryanair. The goal is to finalize the deal before the year’s end.

The move would allow passengers to easily book connecting flights on multiple airlines all on the same itinerary, just as passengers do now with larger airlines. It would also allow easier access to Norwegian’s long-haul flights; it’s currently the only budget airline operating in destinations around the United States, Asia and the Caribbean.

“It could be in the future a low-cost alliance. We’re the only one flying long-haul, so it’s a different structure,” Kjos said. “Then the passenger has access to a huge network, not only from Norwegian, but … from Ryanair. So they can fly cheap not only from A to B, but also from A to B to C to a variety of areas that we would never serve.”