Choose your way to fjords

PASSENGERS travelling to Norway from Newcastle now have a choice of airlines. Norwegian Air Shuttle commenced a two-flights-a-day service to Stavanger yesterday, while Scandinavia's largest carrier Wideroe is operating one flight per day. Both services exclude Saturdays.

l British Airways is set to announce a schedule-sharing agreement with Dutch rival KLM. The deal will allow BA and KLM to sell seats on each others' flights on some routes to the Middle East.

ALFAS GROWTH: The introduction of innovative new products for the glazing industry is helping to boost employment at Alfas, Washington, Tyne and Wear. The foam tapes and technical sealants company has introduced an additional shift and taken on five more staff at Bentall Business Park to meet increased demand. The company has a workforce of just under 100 following an investment of £200,000 in new plant and equipment.

BOARD CHANGES: BT has announced that four non-executive directors are to go in a boardroom shake-up. They are Helen Alexander, chief executive of The Economist Group since 1997, June de Moller, former managing director of Carlton Communications, Sir John Weston, Britain's former Ambassador to the United Nations and former senior Coca-Cola executive Neville Isdell.

BATTERY SALE: Engineering company Invensys has offloaded UK-based batteries business, The Energy Storage Group, which includes the Hawker and Exide brands. It is being sold to EnerSys in a deal worth £349m.