Travelore News: Norwegian’s Low-Cost Service To The U.S. Takes Off From London Gatwick

This week Norwegian celebrates its first ever flights between London Gatwick and the U.S. On Wednesday afternoon, the first flight between London Gatwick and Los Angeles took off, while Norwegian’s first flight between London and New York took off this evening. Friday afternoon, the airline celebrates its inaugural flight to Fort Lauderdale. All the flights are almost full.

Following its long-haul success with non-stop service between Scandinavia and the U.S and Scandinavia and Asia, Norwegian’s long-haul adventure is now taking off in the UK.

The new routes have been very well received both by Brits and Americans; almost all of the 291 seats on Norwegian’s 787 Dreamliner have been booked on all the inaugural flights between London Gatwick and the three U.S. cities Los Angeles, New York and Fort Lauderdale.

”We are very happy to celebrate the first ever flights between the UK and the US. The travelling public deserves affordable fares and flexible tickets across the Atlantic. The transatlantic market has for too long been dominated by a few large airlines offering unreasonably high fares and restricted ticket flexibility,” said Norwegian’s CEO Bjørn Kjos.

“We are very happy with the response to our service in the UK market with several fully booked flights in the coming months. We believe this proves that an airline offering quality flights at a low fare has been long awaited,” he added.

Stewart Wingate, CEO of London Gatwick, said:

“Norwegian’s decision to establish links to key cities in North America including New York and Los Angeles offers passengers real choice and affordable travel. The launch also demonstrates the game-changing nature of the Dreamliner aircraft, which has less seats than older generation aircraft and therefore less reliance on transfer passengers. A two-runway Gatwick will best meet the needs of our rapidly changing aviation market, which looks very different today than it did even ten years ago. All of the signs point to Gatwick being the obvious choice for expansion.”

Flight schedule

London – Los Angeles twice a week from July 2, 2014
Norwegian operates two weekly flights between London (LGW) and Los Angeles (LAX) – on Wednesdays and Sundays. The introductory fare is £199 one way.

London – New York three times a week from July 3, 2014
Norwegian operates three weekly flights between London (LGW) and New York (JFK) – on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The introductory fare is £149 one way.

London – Fort Lauderdale twice a week from July 4, 2014
Norwegian operates two weekly flights between London (LGW) and Fort Lauderdale (FLL) – on Mondays and Fridays. The introductory fare is £179 one way.

Norwegian’s long-haul operations
In 2013 Norwegian commenced its long-haul operation by becoming the only low-cost carrier to offer flights between Europe and the US. Norwegian will have a fleet of 17 Dreamliners, whereof seven are currently in service and one more will be delivered in 2014. The company is planning to expand its long-haul fleet with even more 787 Dreamliners.

Norwegian offers long-haul flights between the following destinations:

Routes from New York (JFK): Oslo (OSL), Stockholm (ARN), Copenhagen (CPH), Bergen (BGO) and London (LGW)

Routes from Fort Lauderdale (FLL): Oslo (OSL), Stockholm (ARN), Copenhagen (CPH) and London (LGW)

Routes from Los Angeles (LAX): Oslo (OSL), Stockholm (ARN), Copenhagen (CPH) and London (LGW)

Routes from San Francisco (OAK): Oslo (OSL) and Stockholm (ARN)

Routes from Orlando (MCO): Oslo (OSL)

Routes from Bangkok (BKK): Oslo (OSL) and Stockholm (ARN)

Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA, commercially branded “Norwegian”, is a low-cost airline listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. Norwegian is the second largest airline in Scandinavia and third largest low cost carrier in Europe. More than 20 million passengers fly on its network per year. Norwegian has a route portfolio that stretches across Europe into North Africa and the Middle East, as well as long-haul flights to the US and Southeast Asia. The company has a total of 416 routes to 126 destinations and employs approximately 4,500 people in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, UK, Spain and Thailand. The company has 258 undelivered aircraft on firm order. Norwegian was founded in 1993 and its headquarter is in Fornebu, Norway. In 2013, Norwegian was voted Europe’s best low-cost carrier of the year by the renowned SkyTrax World Airline Awards. Norwegian offers better leg room than most competitors, in-flight WiFi, world-class punctuality and a fleet of 96 aircraft with an average age of only 4.8 years. 

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Norwegian Launches New Low Cost Routes From London Gatwick To New York, Los Angeles And Fort Lauderdale

Norwegian launches three new long-haul routes between London Gatwick and New York (JFK), Los Angeles (LAX) and Fort Lauderdale (FLL) in summer 2014. Norwegian also launches five new European routes and increases frequencies on existing ones.

Norwegian continues its international expansion as it takes delivery of more 787 Dreamliners. It now adds London Gatwick to its intercontinental route map after experiencing great success with its new European routes from Gatwick launched earlier this year.

“There’s great demand for high quality flights at a low fare between the UK and the U.S., particularly to and from London Gatwick, where no other airline currently offers these routes. We are looking forward to welcoming many new customers on board our brand new aircraft. Launching long-haul routes between London Gatwick and the United States is also an important part of our strategy to expand internationally and get a stronger foothold in markets outside Scandinavia,” said Norwegian’s CEO Bjørn Kjos. 

“This is one of the most exciting route developments since Gatwick’s change of ownership four years ago and shows the benefits to passengers of Gatwick competing with Heathrow on routes, price and service.  Norwegian’s decision to re-establish London Gatwick's links to strategic destinations in North America gives passengers, once again, real choice about how to get there and, importantly, provide options for affordable travel to popular business and leisure destinations. Norwegian’s decision to operate high quality services on new long range aircraft offering good-value fares to the US from London Gatwick is a significant industry game-changer,” said Stewart Wingate, CEO of London Gatwick.

Five new European destinationsIn addition to the new long-haul routes, Norwegian also adds five new European destinations from London Gatwick. New destinations as of next spring and summer are: Santorini, Corfu, Sicily (Catania), Cyprus and Budapest. Norwegian also adds more frequencies to existing destinations Malaga, Ibiza, Split, Dubrovnik, Majorca, Faro, Tenerife, Copenhagen and Barcelona.

Norwegian currently offers 320 weekly flights and 25 routes from London Gatwick.

Tickets to the new destinations will be available for sale today October 17 at www.norwegian.com.

Flight schedule

London – Los Angeles twice a week from July 2, 2014
Norwegian will operate two weekly flights between London (LGW) and Los Angeles (LAX) – on Wednesdays and Sundays. The introductory fare is £199 one way.

London – New York three times a week from July 3, 2014 
Norwegian will operate three weekly flights between London (LGW) and New York (JFK) – on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The introductory fare is £149 one way.

London – Fort Lauderdale twice a week from July 4, 2014 
Norwegian will operate two weekly flights between London (LGW) and Fort Lauderdale (FLL) – on Mondays and Fridays. The introductory fare is £179 one way.

London – Santorini once a week from April 5, 2014 
Norwegian will operate one weekly flight between London (LGW) and Santorini (JTR) – on Saturdays. The introductory fare is £29.90 one way.

London – Corfu once a week from July 19, 2014 
Norwegian will operate one weekly flight between London (LGW) and Corfu (CFU) – on Saturdays. The introductory fare is £29.90 one way.

London – Sicily once a week from April 5, 2014
Norwegian will operate one weekly flight between London (LGW) and Catania, Sicily (CTA) – on Saturdays. The introductory fare is £29.90 one way.

London – Cyprus once a week from April 5, 2014
Norwegian will operate one weekly flight between London (LGW) and Cyprus (LCA) – on Saturdays. The introductory fare is £39.90 one way.

London – Budapest three times a week from March 30, 2014
Norwegian will operate three weekly flights between London (LGW) and Budapest (BUD) – on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. The introductory fare is £29.90 one way.

Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA, commercially branded “Norwegian”, is a low-cost airline listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. Norwegian is the second largest airline in Scandinavia and third largest low cost carrier in Europe. Close to 18 million passengers chose to fly on its network in 2012. Norwegian has a route portfolio that stretches across Europe into North Africa and the Middle East, as well as long-haul flights to the US and Southeast Asia. The company has a total of 382 routes to 121 destinations on sale and employs approximately 3,000 people in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, UK, Spain and Thailand. The company has 275 undelivered aircraft on firm order. Norwegian was founded in 1993 and its headquarter is in Fornebu, Norway. In June 2013, Norwegian was voted Europe’s best low-cost carrier of the year by the renowned SkyTrax World Airline Awards. Norwegian offers better leg room than most competitors, in-flight WiFi, world-class punctuality and a fleet of 75 aircraft with an average age of only 4.6 years.