Aviation News - February 2016 UK

It also announced that it would be  ying

for tour operators Nielson Travel, Balkan

Holidays and Skiworld in the winter of

2015/16 from Gatwick to ski destinations

in France, Spain and Bulgaria. The airline

also  ies for other tour operators, such

as Thomas Cook and TUI, for sunshine

holidays. Norwegian has been  ying

inclusive tour passengers since 2010.

The company had earlier established

subsidiaries with their own AOCs to secure

international growth and additional traffic

rights: Norwegian Air International is based in

Dublin while Norwegian Air Norway is based

at Fornebu near Oslo. The former looks after

Helsinki, Madrid, Barcelona, Malaga, Alicante,

Las Palmas, Tenerife South, Bangkok, New

York and Fort Lauderdale. The latter operates

routes from the Scandinavian bases.

From November 23, Norwegian became

the  rst in Europe to offer passengers live

in- ight TV. They can watch Norway’s TV

2 News and Bloomberg Television via their

personal devices connected to the free Wi-Fi

currently on 87 of the carrier’s aircraft.

Norwegian started  ights on December

4 from the US east coast to the French-

controlled Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe

and Martinique. The 737-800 services are

from JFK, Boston and Baltimore/Washington.

Six days later, the airline retired its

last 737-300, LN-KKW. The jet has been

donated to the Norwegian Aviation Museum

in Bodø in the far north of the country.

Today, Norwegian is Europe’s third-largest

low-cost carrier, operating more than 400

routes to 130-plus destinations in Europe,

North Africa, the Middle East, Thailand, the

Caribbean and the US. Its biggest base

is Oslo/Gardermoen where it currently

has more than 20 aircraft and  ies to 100

destinations.

Looking ahead, Kjos told Bloomberg

that the next step for the airline is linking

smaller cities along the Atlantic coasts of

Europe to destinations on the US east coast,

mainly using the 737 MAX, which will have

the range to cover such distances. As this

would enable passengers to avoid using

hubs, he feels there’s a large market for such

services.

Discussions have also taken place with

Ryanair about the Irish carrier feeding

passengers into Norwegian’s long-haul

network.

Norwegian has come a long way from

solely  ying domestic  ights in Norway on

behalf of another carrier to becoming a

leading low-cost carrier with a long-haul

network.

62 Aviation News incorporating Classic Aircraft February 2016

Three of Norwegian’s 737-800s. Norwegian

Norwegian has more 787-8s (pictured) on order as well as the longer 787-9. Norwegian

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