As Boeing’s B787 Dreamliners remain grounded, Norwegian has wet-leased two A340 aircraft to cover the launch of its first long-haul flights.
The Scandinavian no-frills carrier has eight Dreamliners on order and was expecting the first to be delivered next month in time to operate its new services from the end of May.
Norwegian is launching flights from Oslo to New York JFK on May 30 and from Stockholm to New York on May 31. It is following that with an Oslo-Bangkok service on June 1 and Stockholm-Bangkok on June 20. Initial frequency is two flights a week, increasing to three a week during the summer peak.
But the grounding of all Dreamliners following concerns about the safety of their onboard lithium-ion batteries means Norwegian has had to make contingency plans.
Bjorn Kjos, the airline’s chief executive, said that as it anticipated a delay in receiving the aircraft, the new routes would initially be operated by two A340-300s wet-leased from Portugal’s Hi Fly.
But he added: “You are talking about weeks’ delay, not months.” The A340s have been leased until the end of August. Construction is almost complete on the airline’s first B787. Kjos quipped: “It’s finished – it’s just waiting for batteries.”
He said: “I think [Boeing] has put a lot of effort into solving the problems.” Last week Boeing announced a series of enhancements to the batteries as it worked to get the planes back in the air.
Norwegian’s Dreamliners will be in a two-class economy and premium economy layout configured 2-3-2. A 32-seat premium economy cabin at the front of the aircraft offers a seat pitch of 46 inches, compared with 31 inches in economy, and a recline of 10 inches compared with four inches in economy.
Passengers booked in premium economy for the initial flights will be seated in business class on the A340s, which are in a three-class configuration (first, business and economy). They will therefore benefit from a 61- to 62-inch pitch. The airline said it would “do [its] best to provide passengers with the same amenities and services as they have booked on the Dreamliner”.
Customers booked on to the early flights can cancel their booking or move it forward at no extra charge. They must contact the airline by the end of April to request this, but Kjos reported that not many people had opted to do so.
Norwegian will also establish a new base at Gatwick from next month. It will operate 145 nonstop flights from the Sussex airport to 21 destinations from April 1, increasing to 320 weekly flights from late summer, when it will have four aircraft based at Gatwick.
Most of the routes are leisure ones but they also include thrice-weekly services to Barcelona from April 4, and four-times weekly flights to Rome from September 6. It has already boosted the frequency of its existing Gatwick-Oslo flights to four per day, and Gatwick-Stockholm to five a day.
Kjos said the UK was “a very interesting market” and that the airline would potentially look at establishing other bases here and in continental Europe. Following the launch of its Bangkok routes, it also intends to expand its Asian operations in the future. “To compete in the future you have to be in Asia because that’s where the flow [of passengers] will originate,” he said.
Meanwhile, the airline has announced that a paid-for film and TV offering is now available on its 60 wifi-equipped B737-800s. Passengers can choose from 40 movies and 130 TV shows and stream them to their personal devices. It costs €7 to watch a film or to access 24 hours of TV coverage.
The airline says content is streamed through a separate network that will not affect the speed of its wifi, which is offered free.
norwegian.com