Norwegian will begin new flights to Los Angeles and New York from Amsterdam, Madrid and Milan in May, increasing to 10 the number of new transatlantic routes it plans to launch next year.
The carrier will add service to Los Angeles from Madrid four-times weekly from 15 July, and from Milan Malpensa four-times weekly from 16 June, it says.
New York JFK will see new service from Amsterdam four-times weekly from 7 May, and from Madrid three-times weekly from 17 July.
Norwegian will operate all of the routes with 344-seat Boeing 787-9 aircraft.
“We plan to make three of Europe’s most exciting cities so much more affordable and easier to reach for American travellers," says Bjorn Kjos, chief executive of Norwegian. "We are not slowing down our quest to provide Americans with low fares and a high-quality on-board experience."
In addition, the airline plans to use some of the 28 weekly slots at London Gatwick that it has acquired from Small Planet Airlines for growth to the USA. New service will be announced at a later date, it says.
Norwegian will open a flight attendant base in Los Angeles, its fourth in the USA, with 150 cabin crew initially in the first quarter of 2018 to support the new routes and its existing service at the airport.
The four new routes join service to Austin and Chicago O'Hare from London Gatwick; Boston, Denver and Oakland from Paris Charles de Gaulle; and Oakland from Rome that Norwegian will begin in 2018, FlightGlobal schedules show.
Norwegian is scheduled to grow transatlantic capacity by 118% in the first half of 2018 compared to this year, the data shows. This includes the numerous routes that the airline added this past summer.
To Madrid, the low-cost carrier will compete with Iberia from Los Angeles, and with Air Europa, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Iberia from New York JFK, schedules show. United Airlines also flies between Madrid and Newark.
To Amsterdam, Norwegian will compete with Delta and KLM from New York JFK, and United from Newark.
No airlines fly between Los Angeles and Milan.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
