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Norwegian Air Shuttle
I heard that Norwegian were supposed to be going daily with their Edinburgh/Oslo Gardemoen service some time this year. Does anyone have any info if this is still happening?
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Increases to 5 flights per week in the summer
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Oh well, I suppose in the current climate, 5 x is better than staying at the current 3 x. Hope it stays at 5x once the extra flights are introduced.
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No-frills carrier Norwegian said in a statement Thursday it would launch twice-daily services from Oslo and Stockholm to Helsinki in April. Norwegian added the routes would form part of its strategy to become a strong player on the Nordic market. "It is a milestone for Norwegian when we now launch our first direct flights to Finland," Bjørn Kjos, the managing director of Norwegian, said in the statement. "The Nordic region is a natural focus area for us." Norwegian, one of Europe's largest no-frills carriers, will compete with Finnish flag carrier Finnair and Scandinavian Airlines, including Finnish subsidiary Blue1, on the Helsinki-Oslo and Helsinki-Stockholm routes. "The Nordic region is a natural focus area for us." Oddly enough, they needed so many years to discover that Finland is a Nordic country too. Better late than never. |
HEL - the new base of Norwegian
From Norwegian's press release:
Oslo/Fornebu, October 5, 2010 Norwegian expands in Finland with 100 weekly flights The airline Norwegian opens a Finnish base at Helsinki’s Vantaa airport. At the same time it introduces two domestic routes and expands the current international offer from two to 13. Three aircraft will be based in Helsinki. “We are happy to announce that we are increasing our presence in Finland by opening a new base in Helsinki and basing three of our aircraft here. Norwegian entered the Finnish market in April, and after a mere five months our Helsinki-Oslo and Helsinki-Stockholm routes have proven to be a great success. We believe that both the Finnish business and leisure traveller are ready for more fares that everyone can afford to both domestic and international destinations” said Norwegian’s CEO, Bjørn Kjos. As the second largest airline in Scandinavia and the third largest low lost airline in Europe, Norwegian serves a total of 238 routes to 93 destinations both domestic and international. By entering the Finnish domestic market, Norwegian further increases its foothold as a major Nordic player. Today, the airline has domestic operations in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. The new Finnish routes include Helsinki-Oulu and Helsinki-Rovaniemi. Four daily flights will serve the Helsinki-Oulu route and one daily flight will operate between Helsinki and Rovaniemi. The first flight departs March 31 2011. Norwegian has since late April 2010 operated several daily flights between Helsinki and Stockholm and Helsinki and Oslo. Spring 2011 Norwegian introduces 11 new international destinations departing from Helsinki’s Vantaa airport: Copenhagen, Malaga, Nice, Crete (Chania), Rome, Barcelona, London Gatwick, Split and Alicante. Tickets will go on sale on Wednesday October 6 at 1 pm CET. Prices start at €29 to domestic destinations as well as to typical business and urban holiday destinations in continental Europe. The longer routes to Southern Europe start at €59. Domestic routes go into operation on March 31, whereas international routes start in early to mid May. The big losers are by far Finnair and Blue1. With the DY base on AY's yard, the sky-high prices of the national carrier could become unsustainable in the long run. The latter one, a subsidiary of SAS, has functioned according to the rule "legacy carrier prices, lcc services". It will be a big blow to that carrier either. ' |
HEL as a base was the next logical step and finally Finland will get some more LCC flight.
airBaltic will announce a base in Oulo soon Press releases |
"Airlines are finally targeting Finland, the market that looks similar to Norway before Norwegian sparked the competition there - said the airline CEO Kjos at the press conference yesterday.
- "Norway used to have the most expensive airfares in the world, now it is probably Finland, he told the journalists. During the question round Kjos admitted that it might be tough to get some patriotic Finns to switch the airlines. - "The Finns like Finnair, but we are cooperating with the company quite well, pondered Kjos. However, he thinks that it's BlueOne that will get hurt the most in the Finnish market. |
So basically the base will become fully operative only from March 2011? Anyone knows which aircrafts is planned to use there and what is the current situation with new personell hiring?
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which aircrafts is planned to use 3 x Boeing 737-800. |
and does anyone know what kind of ID tickets do they have, except their own ones?
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Biggest ever European aircraft order?
Norwegian buying 222 aircraft, mix of 737s and 320s
Norwegian Air to Order Jets Valued at $21.5B - Bloomberg Where on earth are they going to fly them? |
Largest Ever Aircraft Acquisition in Europe: Norwegian purchases 222 new aircraft
22 B738, 100 B737MAX and 100 A320neo purchase rights: 100 B737MAX + 50 A320neo http://media.norwegian.com/en/Pressrelease/?iId=726501 |
Excellent news. Ryanair take last delivery in November. Maybe now a sensible alternative over the next 5-10 year period ? Bye-bye Ryanair painted on the sides? :eek:
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In an already saturated market where the likes of Ryanair are already parking many aircraft during Winter seasons, just where is the traffic expansion coming from to support such an order?
I am guessing they hope that SAS roll over and die? Dont get me wrong, i'm all for expansion but with Stelios also repeatedly calling for restraint on Aircraft orders, can this really be sensible? |
It will be interesting to see the rationale from Norwegian's management. Certainly the scandinavian market alone would not seem to justify ordering that number of planes. So it looks like them going head to head with Ryanair (another mega airline with a small local population) in the wider market.
Then again perhaps a degree of skepticism as to whether Boeing and Airbus are going to deliver to their ambitious timescales has encouraged Norwegian to place an each way bet....similar to American Airlines. Hardly a month seems to go by without some airline that hardly anybody had heard of ten years ago ordering hundreds of jets. |
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Largest Ever Aircraft Aquisition in Europe
Anyone spotted the contradiction in the press release.
The first paragraph states The order includes additional purchase right of 150 aircraft from both manufacturers. Norwegian has also signed an agreement with Airbus which includes firm orders of a total of 100 Airbus A320neo as well as purchase rights for an additional 50. |
Look again, you'll see the 100 737 options
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From my recent passenger experience the Norwegian passenger offering is superb setting a standard all other european locos should aim for.It would be good news for the consumer if their product spreads across Europe.
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I understood the first para that reads '150 options from both manufacturers' to mean 150 from Boeing and 150 from Airbus.
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