Norwegian Air now flying between London and the USA
Norwegian Air Shuttle this week introduced its first flight between the United States and London Gatwick airport. My friend who is a flight attendant for Norwegian Air out of Fort Lauderdale brought the news to my attention, thanks Nick!
The first flight was between Los Angeles and London and it took off Wednesday. The flight between NYC’s JFK Airport and London took off on Thursday. Flights between Fort Lauderdale and London began yesterday, July 4, 2014.
The low-cost European carrier will operate the LA and Fort Lauderdale flights twice a week and the New York flights will take off. Introductory fares range from about $203 to $271 each way, which doesn’t seem too introductory given their already low one-way fares.
The airline said that most of the 291 seats on the airline’s 787 Dreamliner have been filled on all the inaugural flights. Several flights in coming months are also full, the airline said. The airline is set to have 17 787 Dreamliners, currently seven are in service with one more being delivered by the end of 2014.
The carrier still faces challenges in the United States though, U.S. airlines and pilots have resisted it moving into the U.S. market due to what critics call a “scheme to escape labor costs and high employee salaries.” You can find a previous post that I wrote about it here.
My friend who is a flight attendant out of FLL for Norwegian Air sent me the below picture, though, I’m not sure if he took it himself or not:
My girlfriend was on that first flight from FLL to LGW! She said she loved the “new plane smell” and that the seats were comfy. Her cost was around $950 for the round trip ticket with the upgraded economy ticket.
Any news from your friend on how the flight went? I don’t think there was much if a celebration in Gatwick or Ft. Lauderdale for the flight.
Tom,
Apparently they did have a celebration but it involved mostly the media, staff and frequent flyers. The general public and those flying that day were not really aware of it. The big party was the first inaugural flight out of LGW. My friend is sending me some pictures and I’ll add them to my post! 🙂
Best wishes,
A