In the aftermath of the the annual event organised by Air France during which the airline group's management did not fail to underline the competitive context of a "market under pressure", a new player is playing its cards. As predicted several days ago, on 19 February Norwegian announced the launch of new long-haul low-cost flights from Paris-CDG. Three American destinations are on the programme for this new and unprecedented offer: New York (JFK), Los Angeles and Fort Lauderdale (Miami). The airline will connect the Paris hub to the Big Apple four times a week, every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Los Angeles (2 flights a week, on Tuesdays and Saturdays) and Miami (one flight a week, on Thursdays) will offer less ambitious frequencies.
Norwegian will operate its first flights from Paris-CDG with Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, with 291 seats, including 32 in Premium Class and 259 in Economy Class. In total, more than 212,000 seats will be offered between Paris and the United States for the first year of operation. Norwegian already carried some 967,000 passengers in France last year, and will operate 31 routes from twelve French airports: Paris Charles-de-Gaulle and Paris Orly, Ajaccio, Bastia, Biarritz, Bordeaux, Grenoble, Marseille-Provence, Montpellier, Nice, Guadeloupe and Martinique.
"We already operate non-stop flights from London, Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm," says Bjorn Kjos, founder and CEO of Norwegian. "The choice of Paris as the fifth European capital for our long-haul flights clearly underlines our desire to expand in France. Paris is one of the main gateways to Europe and Charles-de-Gaulle airport represents a strong potential for expansion thanks to the addition of longer-haul routes as well as several frequencies on the 3 new routes announced today".
