Addendum
Norwegian seeking Asian partner with view to marriage
March 1st 2018
Wanted: An Asian no-frills airline to partner with rapidly expanding Norwegian Air, which has been flying London-Singapore for six months. Read More » The ambitious LCC, which attracted considerable industry interest when it launched its first long haul low-cost flights in 2013, has confirmed “the door is open” for exploring expansion elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific, including Australia.
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Norwegian said in a statement that as an ambitious airline with huge aircraft orders “it is no secret that we have plans to expand globally”. It has 160 jets on order and already is flying 119 B737-800s with eight more to be delivered and six B737MAX8 that will grow to 110 of the type when all orders are filled. It also has eight B787-8s and 15 B787-9s in its fleet with 18 more -9s committed and an order for 30 A321LRs.
Based at Fornebu in Norway and operated by Norwegian Air Shuttle, Norwegian Air UK is a fully owned subsidiary of Norwegian Air Shuttle which launched to Singapore from London Gatwick last September. “Our Singapore-London flights continue to perform well. The door is open to exploring potential ways we can cooperate with other low-cost carriers that would offer passengers onward connections to other parts of Asia and places as far as Australia,” an airline spokesperson said last month.
In February, the carrier launched the UK’s first low-fare route to South America, a non-stop service from London Gatwick to Buenos Aires. A month earlier, it set a record for the fastest transatlantic flight in a subsonic passenger aircraft from New York to London. The journey was completed in just over five hours. The Norwegian B787-9 reached a top speed of 776 miles per hour (mph). As the aircraft sped across the Atlantic it benefitted from an extra strong jet stream that at times reached a speed of 202 mph. The official time for the 3,458 mile journey was five hours and 13 minutes, 53 minutes faster than expected.
