Norwegian Air Shuttle are once again innovating with its network – and sticking one to a certain British Airline with it opening booking a new route between London Gatwick to Buenos Aires Ezeiza Route.
Norwegian Air Shuttle Boeing 787 arriving onto stand at London Gatwick, Image – Norwegian Air Shuttle //CC3.0.
With Norwegian coming out of the traps to break the existing monopoly on the London to Buenos Aires Route (currently operated by British Airways), the airline will be spinning up its new service with a planned introduction for 14th February 2018 (so if you are looking for a Valentines get-away, this could be a good place to start)
The route will operate four times a week on a split timetable:
London Gatwick to Buenos Aires Ezeiza
DI7505 DEPART LGW 08:15 ARRIVE EZE 19:00 Mondays and Fridays DI7505 DEPART LGW 21:30 ARRIVE EZE:08:15+1 Wednesdays and Saturdays
Buenos Aires Ezeiza to London Gatwick
DI7506 DEPART EZE 13:00 ARRIVE LGW 05:00+1 Thursdays and Sundays DI7506 DEPART EZE 21:00 ARRIVE LGW 13:00+1 Mondays and Fridays Booked Equipment: Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. Commences 14th Feburary 2018. Data: Norwegian/RoutesOnline
Norwegian will operate their Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners on the route, with Premium and Economy seats. These flights will be operated by the Norwegians UK subsidiary (hence the DI flight codes)
Lead-in Prices start at £299 one way in Economy Class, and £699 in Premium Class.
Flights are loaded on Norwegians site and are on sale for those who want to head to the Paris for the south.
Buried in the bottom of the press release is something very interesting. Here it is posted verbatim:
The new London-Argentina route will be operated by the UK subsidiary ‘Norwegian UK’ (NUK) which was established in 2015 to give the airline a stronger foothold in the UK market, and allow it to access bilateral traffic rights to a series of new markets in Asia, Africa and South America. NUK is headquartered at London Gatwick, and will use British-registered aircraft and Gatwick-based crew to operate the new services. Earlier this year, Norwegian also established an Argentinian subsidiary, Norwegian Air Argentina, with plans for a considerable operation in Argentina, including domestic flights.
(emphasis mine).
If Norwegian can get itself in gear and launch domestic routes at the same time the London to BA route spins up, this could be one hell of a combination for connectivity in the South America region.
This could be one to watch… especially for British Airways who may have to react via its colleague company LEVEL if there is significant dent in passenger numbers.
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