Norwegian to reorient Gatwick operations towards longhaul
Taken for ch-aviation.com:
Norwegian is planning to scale back its short-haul operations out of London Gatwick in favour of longhaul routes airline spokesman Lasse Sandaker-Nielsen has told Bloomberg news.
In an interview, Sandaker-Nielsen said overcapacity in the European market coupled with a growing scarcity of Gatwick slots meant Norwegian would gradually reorient its operations towards the more profitable longhaul market. The transition, he said, could occur as early as this winter season (2017/18).
The shift will also follow the commencement of a feeder agreement with rival Ryanair (FR, Dublin Int'l) wherein the Irish LCC will provide Norwegian with regional European passenger traffic for long-haul flights out of Gatwick later this summer.
According to the ch-aviation route database, the LCC currently uses its Norwegian (DY, Oslo Gardermoen) unit to connect the London gateway with fourteen destinations of which six are in Scandinavia with the remainder in the United States and Puerto Rico. Its Norwegian Air International (D8, Dublin Int'l) and Norwegian UK (DI, London Gatwick) units are, on the other hand, used to operate flights to thirty-eight destinations around Europe.