European budget carrier, Norwegian, has confirmed it will open a new operations and crew base in Tenerife in the Canary Islands, its fourth in Spain, as it continues to rapidly expand its network from the country as part of its strategy to reduce its dependence on the Nordic and Scandinavian markets.
The opening of the new base will result in the introduction of two new routes in the first quarter of 2014 to Berlin Schonefeld and Gran Canaria, which will launch on February 1 and February 2, 2014, respectively, but will also support frequency increases on flights to Hamburg, London Gatwick, Malaga and Oslo. Elsewhere in Spain, Norwegian will also boost flights between Malaga and the German cities of Cologne and Munich, the UK capital, London and Oslo in Norway.
“Our new base at Tenerife is established to meet the great demand for quality flights at a low fare between Europe and this beautiful island,” said Bjørn Kjos, chief executive officer, Norwegian. “We see a major passenger potential between Spain, Germany and UK. The great response to our routes between Spain and the Nordic also encourages us to increase frequencies to our existing route map.”
Norwegian is currently reporting strong growth in all European markets and announced a stable network load factor in its third quarter results. According to the carrier’s latest performance data its base at London Gatwick shows the strongest passenger growth, followed by Oslo Gardermoen and Stockholm Arlanda.
The budget carrier reported a third quarter pre-tax profit of 604 million NOK, a result significantly affected by the additional costs associated with wet-leasing replacement aircraft on long-haul routes due to the delayed delivery and initial operational problems with its Boeing 787 Dreamliners. In addition the summer bookings were lower this quarter due to the unusually warm weather in the Nordics.
Around six million passengers chose to travel with Norwegian during the third quarter, an increase of 800,000 passengers (16 per cent) compared to the same period last year. The company’s traffic growth (RPK) was considerably higher at 30 per cent, which also reflects that each of Norwegian’s passengers on average flies significantly longer than they did a year ago.
“In this quarter, we clearly see the outline of the company’s growth strategy. We have a strong passenger growth in all markets and we have managed to maintain a high load factor, said Kjos. The growth in this quarter has seen the Norwegian network expand to a total of 382 routes across 121 destinations that stretch across Europe into North Africa and the Middle East, as well as long-haul flights to the US and Southeast Asia.
An exciting recent development for the carrier has been the announcement that it will introduce three new long-haul routes from London Gatwick with flights to New York, Los Angeles and Fort Lauderdale in July 2014. The long-haul expansion is not unexpected and it is possible that future long-haul growth could see additional 787 deliveries placed in other European markets.
This is certainly one of the most exciting route developments at London Gatwick in recent years. Norwegian’s decision to re-establish London Gatwick's links to strategic destinations in North America gives passengers, once again, real choice about how to travel to the US for both business and leisure and its low-fares and use of latest generation aircraft will certainly help stimulate the market.
“There’s great demand for high quality flights at a low fare between the UK and the US, particularly to and from London Gatwick, where no other airline currently offers these routes. Launching long-haul routes between London Gatwick and the United States is also an important part of our strategy to expand internationally and get a stronger foothold in markets outside Scandinavia,” said Kjos.
In addition to the new long-haul routes, Norwegian is also adding five new European destinations from London Gatwick with flights to Santorini, Corfu, Sicily (Catania), Cyprus and Budapest. It will also add frequencies to the existing destinations of Malaga, Ibiza, Split, Dubrovnik, Majorca, Faro, Tenerife, Copenhagen and Barcelona. A further link to Tel Aviv is also expected to be announced shortly and is already being displayed in the GDS, although it is not currently available for booking.
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