Norwegian doubles down at Barcelona – Capacity uplifts coming

It seems Norwegian Air Shuttle are increasing their capacity at Barcelona, with plans to switch out the Boeing 787-8 fleet with Boeing 787-9 aircraft

Norwegian Air Shuttle Boeing 787 arriving onto stand at London Gatwick, Image – Norwegian Air Shuttle //CC3.0.

According to Routes Online, the capacity boost will take place at the beginning of the summer timetable, with the following routes switching to Boeing 787-9 aircraft

• Barcelona – Fort Lauderdale commences 22 March, twice a week
• Barcelona – Los Angeles commences 26th March, three times a week
• Barcelona – Newark  (for New York), commences 23rd March, four times a week
• Barcelona – Oakland (for San Francisco and the Bay area) commences 25th March 2018, three times a week

Let’s look at the main difference – seat counts

            Premium Economy     Economy Class
787-8          32 (2-3-2)        259 (3-3-3)    
787-9          32 (2-3-2)        309 (3-3-3)
Difference      0                 50

The net result is an uplift of 50 economy class seats each way – an extra 600 seats a week between Barcelona and its long haul destinations.

So why the extra uplift? Well, it should be pretty obvious, with Norwegian having to face off IAG on two fronts – Iberia from the top, and LEVEL from bottom.

This will be interesting depending how LEVEL chooses to respond in the medium term….

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