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Norwegian’s dramatic expansion continues apace, with two interesting pieces of news today for those of us who love low-cost long haul travel.

New routes

The first thing is today’s announcement of four new transatlantic routes, all scheduled to start operating sometime between May and July next year:

• Amsterdam – New York (JFK). 4 flights per week. Commences 7th May 2018.
• Milan (Malpensa) – Los Angeles. 4 flights per week. Commences 18th June 2018
• Madrid – Los Angeles. 4 flights per week. Commences 16th July 2018.
• Madrid – New York (JFK). 3 flights per week. Commences 18th July 2018.

Norwegian will be setting up a new crew base in Los Angeles too, so I imagine we’ll be seeing further expansion there soon too.

Fares for the new routes are being advertised as starting at about £150-175 one way in Economy and £465-£555 one way in Premium Class, depending on the route.

Norwegian already offers 61 nonstop transatlantic routes from 13 European cities (London, Rome,
Paris, Barcelona, Edinburgh, Dublin, Cork, Belfast, Shannon, Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm and
Bergen).

London Gatwick expansion

Norwegian today also confirmed that it has acquired an additional 28 weekly slots at London Gatwick Airport from summer 2018. The take-off and landing slots, purchased from Small Planet Airlines, will allow Norwegian to plan for continued growth at Gatwick as the airline heads into its busiest ever year in the UK in 2018.

Norwegian’s route network at Gatwick includes long-haul flights to 9 US cities and Singapore, with further long-haul routes to Argentina, Chicago and Austin launching early next year.

Planning work is now underway to allocate the newly acquired 28 weekly slots which cover the busy summer 2018 period at London Gatwick.

Norwegian Chief Commercial Officer Thomas Ramdahl said: “London Gatwick is at the heart of our global growth ambitions so securing these crucial new slots will allow us to offer our passengers even more new routes, additional flights and affordable fares. Together with the launch of new routes to Argentina, Chicago and Austin in 2018, gaining extra capacity at London Gatwick is another huge boost as we get ready for our biggest ever year in the UK.”

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