ArticleRoyal Fleet

Previous blog articles demonstrate how new meanings can help to explore a natural phenomenon or improve a routine experience. However, the most imaginative of them can go as far as creating a new social reality. 

While it was Nature that shaped Norwegian landscape for everyone to enjoy and admire, Norwegians were left to decide, HOW to transport their guests into the country. Their choice has proven to be very much out of the ordinary: most visitors are brought in by a royalty! Each and every of the 33 planes belonging to Norwegian main airline “Braathens”, has a proper name. The name can be descriptive (like “Ingeborg Svensdatten”, which simply means “Ingeborg, who is Sven’s daughter”), complimentary (I, for instance, flew to Oslo by “Hakon the Good”), or neutral (it was “Sigurd Muur” who carried me all the way back). The name can even be stigmatizing, like “Erik the Bloody Axe”. I hope this one is allowed to carry no passengers, only cargo – otherwise, staying clean during the flight might turn into a real problem!

Assigning names to certain inanimate objects is, in fact, a rather established tradition but naming a whole national fleet on the same principle is, probably, unheard of – totally unique. Those planes look like flying history books, they really do!