‘Norwegian’ to challenge BA and Virgin by launching £150 flights to New York from Gatwick
Transatlantic fares from £150, one way, will be on offer from the UK when the low-cost carrier, Norwegian, begins new long-haul services from Gatwick in summer 2014 – using a Dreamliner 787. From July 2014 it will fly from Gatwick to New York (3 times per week), Los Angeles and Fort Lauderdale (twice a week each). The introductory fares, one way, will be New York £149, Fort Lauderdale £179 and Los Angeles £199. Norwegian’s chief executive Bjorn Kjos said: ‘There’s great demand for high-quality flights at a low fare between the UK and the US, particularly to and from Gatwick.” These are largely holiday flights. Gatwick is excited about the new flights, as it wants to compete with Heathrow for long haul routes. Norwegian currently offers 320 weekly flights and 25 routes from Gatwick, and in January 2012, it announce
d a large aircraft order,of 122 Boeing 737 aircraft as part of a significant expansion. Last month Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary announced he is planning ‘ten buck’ transatlantic flights to the United States, when he can get the right planes.
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Budget airline wages price war on BA and Virgin by launching £150 flights to New York from Gatwick
- The thrice weekly services to New York will begin on July 3, 2014
- A twice weekly LA service, will start on July 2, with an one-way fare of £199
- Flights include taxes but not luggage and fly direct to the destination cities
By RAY MASSEY
17th October 2013 (Daily Mail)
[By comparison, looking at cheap flights online it appears to be possible already to get a return flight from London to New York for £392 with AirFrance/KLM]
Transatlantic fares from under £150 will be on offer from the UK when a low-cost carrier begins new long-haul services from Gatwick next summer, its Scandinavian boss announced.
From the beginning of July 2014, budget carrier Norwegian is to fly from Gatwick to New York, Los Angeles and Fort Lauderdale in Florida.
Starting on July 3, the thrice-weekly services to New York will have an introductory one-way fare of £149, while the Los Angeles service, starting on July 2, will be twice a week with an introductory fare of £199 one way.
The Fort Lauderdale flights will start on July 4, with the twice-weekly service starting with an introductory fare of £179 one way.
The US flights will be on the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane.
Norwegian also announced it would be starting five new European services from Gatwick next year – Budapest, Cyprus, Sicily, Santorini and Corfu.
Norwegian’s chief executive Bjorn Kjos (KJOS) said: ‘There’s great demand for high-quality flights at a low fare between the UK and the US, particularly to and from Gatwick.
‘We are looking forward to welcoming many new customers on board our brand new aircraft.’
Gatwick chief executive Stewart Wingate said: ‘This is one of the most exciting route developments since Gatwick’s change of ownership four years ago.
‘It 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.
Mr Wingate added: ‘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.’’
Norwegian is increasingly a major player in the European market at Gatwick.
In 2009, its number of weekly flights from the airport stood at 198, but by the end of this summer, that figure will have been boosted to 320. In January 2012, it announced Europe’s largest ever mass aircraft purchase, ordering 122 Boeing 737 aircraft as part of a significant expansion.
Norwegian currently offers 320 weekly flights and 25 routes from London Gatwick.
It means the budget airline is taking on established rivals such as British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and big US carriers in a new transatlantic price war.
Norwegian said it is also adding more frequencies to existing destinations Malaga, Ibiza, Split, Dubrovnik, Majorca, Faro, Tenerife, Copenhagen and Barcelona.
Norwegian’s boss Mr Kjos added: ‘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.’
Last month Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary announced he is planning ‘ten buck’ transatlantic flights to the United States.
The ebullient budget airline chief executive said he wanted tickets to start from as little as US$10 – or around £6.30 at current exchange rates – to bust open the strangle-hold of the major airlines including rivals British Airways.
NORWEGIAN: A NEW MAJOR PLAYER
Norwegian is increasingly a major player in the European market at Gatwick.
In 2009, its number of weekly flights from the airport stood at 198, but by the end of this summer, that figure will have been boosted to 320. In January 2012, it announced Europe’s largest ever mass aircraft purchase, ordering 122 Boeing 737 aircraft as part of a significant expansion.
Norwegian currently offers 320 weekly flights and 25 routes from London Gatwick.
It means the budget airline is taking on established rivals such as British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and big US carriers in a new transatlantic price war.
Norwegian said it is also adding more frequencies to existing destinations Malaga, Ibiza, Split, Dubrovnik, Majorca, Faro, Tenerife, Copenhagen and Barcelona.
The plan has echoes of Seventies cut-price pioneer Sir Freddie Laker whose cheap Skytrain flights to the USA transformed transatlantic travel for the masses, until effectively killed off by the established airlines, though it inspired Sir Richard Branson to launch Virgin Atlantic.
Speaking at the World Low Cost Airlines Congress’ at the Sofihotel adjoining Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5 last month, Mr O’Leary told 400 budget airline bosses: ‘Ryanair fares across the Atlantic could start from around ten bucks.’
He stressed: ’Clearly not all fares would be ten bucks.’
But he pointed out that in 1991 average Ryanair fares were around £99.We’re now down to £18.’
Mr O’Leary told delegates that Ryanair’s ‘ten bucks’ flights could start in four years’ time: ’But we’re not going to do it until we’ve got some planes.’
And currently the price of the long-haul aircraft required is simply too high because Gulf state airlines were buying them up from Boeing and Airbus and there was insufficient availability:’
‘They’ve put in gargantuan long-haul orders. So there’s no availability on suitable aircraft.’
Frode Foss, chief financial officer with low-cost Norwegian Air Shuttle, who shared the same platform with Mr O’Leary said his at the time airline had bought 220 planes costing £13billion and would use some of them to run transatlantic flights from Oslo to New York for ‘around £100 each way’.