Norwegian Air Shuttle said it plans to set up a new base in Copenhagen after the collapse of Danish low-cost carrier Sterling on Wednesday, and start flying new routes from next month.

Norwegian Air, which competes with Scandinavian leader SAS, said it would station two aircraft in Copenhagen from November 6 and fly six routes, including to Aalborg, Stockholm and Oslo. Other routes, including to London, Amsterdam and Rome, would open "shortly after", it added.

Sterling, which had signed a cooperation agreement with Norwegian Air in June, said it would file for bankruptcy after its Icelandic owners could no longer support it financially, stranding thousands of passengers throughout Europe.

Norwegian Air chief executive Bjorn Kjos said that Sterling was a source of low-cost air tickets from Copenhagen for years and that his airline would continue on this path.

"From now on, Norwegian will be the airline to visit for good quality, low cost airline tickets out of Denmark," Kjos said, adding that Norwegian's expansion plan was "well funded".

"Very strong third quarter results prove that our business model is sustainable even in tough times for the industry," he said.

Norwegian Air and Sterling had signed a cooperation agreement for the busy Oslo-Copenhagen and Stockholm-Copenhagen routes but the deal was never implemented due to a probe by competition authorities.

Separately, SAS -- whose shares surged 22 percent on Wednesday in the wake of Sterling's collapse -- said that it was offering stranded Sterling clients travel back to Scandinavia.

"Sterling passengers stranded in Europe travelling to Scandinavia and... within Scandinavia... are offered the possibility to buy a ticket, only covering airport taxes and other expenses, on an SAS operated flight," it said.

SAS will accept passengers as long as capacity is available.

Shares in Norwegian Air rose 8.1 percent to 28 kronor on Wednesday, outpacing a 2.7 percent rise on Oslo's main bourse index.