As far as longhaul expansion goes, I can’t think of an airline that’s announcing more new routes than Norwegian. Every few weeks we hear of new destinations, and this latest one is the most exciting yet. They currently serve nine U.S. cities from London Gatwick, with Singapore launching soon. Now Norwegian has announced their latest new route, which represents service to a new continent.
Starting February 14, 2018, Norwegian will be introducing four weekly direct flights between London Gatwick and Buenos Aires. Flights will be operated by the Boeing 787-9 with the following schedule:
DI7505 London to Buenos Aires departing 8:15AM arriving 7:00PM [Mon, Fri]
DI7505 London to Buenos Aires departing 9:30PM arriving 8:15AM (+1 day) [Wed, Sat]
DI7506 Buenos Aires to London departing 1:00PM arriving 5:00AM (+1 day) [Thu, Sun]
DI7506 Buenos Aires to London departing 9:00PM arriving 1:00PM (+1 day) [Mon, Fri]
As of now, Norwegian is offering the lowest prices I’ve ever seen on one-way tickets to Argentina. Check out the below itinerary from Gothenburg to Buenos Aires via London for just £267.80.
It’s worth noting that direct flights from London start at £299, so starting in Scandinavia is cheaper. Even Norwegian Premium is only £667.80, which is a fantastic deal.
This is huge news since South America has long been one of the most expensive continents to reach from Europe. Right now, British Airways has a monopoly on the London to Buenos Aires route. Furthermore, LEVEL, IAG’s new transatlantic airline, began flying between Barcelona and Buenos Aires as of this past week.
Hopefully Norwegian’s new flight will bring down prices in the market. I’m excited to see Norwegian launch regional flights soon as well, because South America is in desperate need of increased airline competition.
Are you excited for this announcement? What kind of impact do you expect it will have on future travel to/from South America?
8780 E McKellips Road Lot 271
Norwegian just added on their website that Premium Economy on their new Service from LGW/EZE will feature a seat that has 55 inches of pitch.....Anyway to confirm this....as it would almost be worth the price and extra hours to fly from our nearest Norwegian gateway of LAX to obtain such a great price and seat pitch....Kindly advise
@Santastico
Norway is part of some kind of pan-European open skies agreement that I can remember the name of right now.
This gives airlines with an Norwegian AOC similar rights as EU airlines to operate domestic flight and international flight in the all of Europe.
That how ever is not important right now as Norwegian AIR also have an Irish AOC and UK AOC, plus an Argentinean AOC coming for flight in South America which...
@Santastico
Norway is part of some kind of pan-European open skies agreement that I can remember the name of right now.
This gives airlines with an Norwegian AOC similar rights as EU airlines to operate domestic flight and international flight in the all of Europe.
That how ever is not important right now as Norwegian AIR also have an Irish AOC and UK AOC, plus an Argentinean AOC coming for flight in South America which this flight will probably feed into.
The Irish AOC and UK AOC is because Norway have very few international open skies agreements, Eu-US and Thailand is some of the few long hauls you can operated on a Norwegian AOC.
Norwegian is not a airline any more, but an airline group similar to IAG or Lufthansa. Only difference is that they sell flights under one name rather than under a few different names.
This is awesome news!! Can't wait to grab some of those low fare flights and afford to go home more often. I can only travel every two years due to the high cost of flights!! Thank you Norwegian, you made my day : ))
Isn't Norwegian based in Norway? How can they operate flights originating or ending in the UK? I thought they had to operate from Norway.
sorry the link is http://www.hkgslot.gov.hk/Slot_Availability.html
Replying back to Alvin. The only problem for Norwegian is that there are zero slots hardly available at Hong Kong Airport. If you click on the link which is from the Hong Kong Airport coordinator there are some shoulder slots to arrive but departure is inconvenient for a low cost airline to compete against Cathay Pacific. (7 hours would be the minimum turnaround)
They should fly to Hong Kong, all three airlines that fly between HKG and LHR offer obscene business class prices...
Norwegian owns an airline in Argentina: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Air_Argentina
crazy they picked BA and not GRU or GIG
"because South America is in desperate need of increased airline competition"
Amen to that!
@Carlos: all North Americans grew up with seven continents. EMEAns tacitly agreed to this arrangement with CONCACAF and CONMEBOL. :-)
Buenos Aires from London seems like an odd choice for Norwegian given its relative remoteness and the disasters that are Aerolineas and LAN Argentina. It's like they're begging IAG to acquire them. I'd think an EZE flight to somewhere in Italy might be more profitable.
@Carlos... so are Europe and Asia one continent too given that they're connected?
@ henry LAX: from my school days, it was uncontested that America was a single continent. I was going to reply something along the lines "you should check your geography books", but I did this online and, actually, English speaking countries consider them two continents and Latin America, Portugal and Spain, a single one. So as this is quite controversial, I take that comment back. It was an interesting finding.
267 from GOT, makes more sense for most folks to just take it from London for 299 and not do the Ex EU.
Works for you though as you live in Sweden.
Its great for my South American friends that now can reach Europe in a affordible way
@Carlos : if you like to cast THAT wide a net, then Europe-Asia-Africa is one contiguous landmass too.
@Carlos, you forgot the Panama Canal...
@ABC, because there is enough competition between Europe and GIG and GRU. EZE has much less competition out of Europe.
Just to nitpick, but South America is attached to North America through Central America, so they aren´t flying to a new continent. But it´s great news, anyway.
I'm surprised they didn't go for GIG or GRU first.