Norwegian Will Start Flying Between Tampa & London

Ben,
Do you think the rising popularity of the Gulf Coast (i.e Sarasota, Bradenton, Anna Maria Island) from tourists maybe a stimulus for this, or could it be just another way of getting to Orlando and the parks, since TPA airport only 1 hour away from Orlando on the Interstate 4 and Orlando MCO Airport is nearly at capacity?

As a Tampa based flyer, I would love to see BA respond by switching the Tampa flight to Heathrow. I know this isn't super likely, given the way that they tend to fly vacation destinations out of Gatwick, but the increased connectivity would be invaluable for flyers originating in Tampa.

FYI - Norwegian now also has a 787-9 with a more dense premium cabin. It is 8 rows 2-3-2 with 43” of pitch vs. the 5 rows 2-3-2 with 46” of pitch.
Wife just flew MCO-LGW this week and was pleasantly surprised.
Virgin Atlantic wanted $2K one way for Economy Delight (3” of additional legroom)
Was able to book same day with Norwegian for $710 one way.

Interesting.....
I would be curious if there was a probability of an Airfrance/KLM and Delta joint bid, with all of the transatlantic destinations they are opening up they could convert the longhual and maybe even short haul flights to Virgin Atlantic so it could get a grip on the British market. The purchase would also give SkyTeam a carrier in Scandinavia as they currently lack behind Finnair and SAS. It would definitely scare British Airways.
What do you think?

Love It and Love Norwegian Airlines. Just wish they would fly into say Birmingham Al or Nashville TN as new points to add in the south as they lack much of a presence in that area of the country and I am sure they would be a huge success in both cities.

Please do Not Sell to BA or any other airline!!!

I'm soooo happy. I've lived in Tampa for a while and grew up there and the soft spot feeling is the same for me. I would always love seeing the BA 777 at it's gate when driving to the parking garage when I was little. I was also really excited when Lufthansa launched flights.

Grrrr... Norwegian seems to have suspended all of their Seattle flights (which have been 4x weekly) starting the same date.

🙁

Maybe this could be the stimulus for BA to switch one of their Central Florida flights from Gatwick to Heathrow. It would be nice if they switched MCO to Heathrow and left Tampa to Gatwick, this giving travelers choice of departing airport. Although there's a lot of holiday travelers to Orlando, there's also a ton of competition on Gatwick to Orlando so probably low margins. There are a lot of people in Central Florida that could connect via Heathrow, so LHR-MCO would be about connecting traffic, not O/D traffic. Lufthansa is the only major European carrier to offer a large choice of connecting traffic (Delta will soon fly a non-hub route MCO to Amsterdam, so there will be connections on KLM). Would be nice if BA joined the mix by switching their MCO & TPA flights to Heathrow.