Norwegian Air will cool its torrid expansion pace in North America, though the United States will remain a top priority for the carrier.
That means splashy announcements about new routes will instead give way to flight increases on routes Norwegian already flies.
“For the time being, we need to add more frequencies,” Norwegian CEO Bjørn Kjos said in an interview in Washington’s posh Dupont Circle neighborhood Thursday.
Even with the shift in focus, Norwegian will remain in a growth mode this year. The company is in the midst of implementing 14 new U.S.-Europe routes that had already been announced by the carrier. Included among those are the three newest European destinations to get nonstop Norwegian service from the USA: Amsterdam, Madrid and Milan. (Scroll to bottom for the full list of upcoming routes)
Norwegian flies most of its U.S.-Europe flights on its new Boeing 787 Dreamliners. But the carrier uses single-aisle Boeing 737 Max jets on 10 routes from smaller airports in New York and New England.
Boeing 737 flights to Scotland from a third small airport – Bradley International Airport near Hartford, Connecticut – ended in March.
Kjos blamed United Kingdom taxes for making the Hartford flights unprofitable but said 737 flights from Newburgh and Providence remain important cogs in Norwegian’s U.S. flight network.
“You have to try,” he said, adding that he’s happy with the current line-up of trans-Atlantic offerings. “The routes that we are flying now work quite fine.”
Kjos sounds the most optimistic about the potential from Newburgh.
“I think we will fly more into Newburgh,” Kjos said, though he did not offer specifics. “Newburgh is doing very well.»
Norwegian’s 2017 arrival was a milestone for the small airport, located about 70 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. Before that, Newburgh spent many years as a small regional airport, struggling to land high-profile routes.
Then came Norwegian and its routes to Ireland, Norway and the United Kingdom – European options that would be the envy of any similarly-sized airport. Adding to the buzz: sale fares that have occasionally dropped below $70 one way.
Bus service – timed with Norwegian’s schedule – provides connections between Newburgh and the Port Authority bus terminal in Midtown Manhattan.
But aside from Europeans looking for an alternate way to get to New York City, Newburgh has proved equally popular with Americans looking for nonstop options to Europe.
“You see a lot of people booking from northern New Jersey, parts of New York state and Connecticut,” adds Norwegian spokesman Anders Lindström.
In the face of Norwegian’s breakneck North American expansion, however, the company has faced skepticism from financial analysts about its balance sheets.
And, on Friday, Norwegian opened ticket sales for its newest international push in Argentina. The carrier already flies from Buenos Aires to London, but its new Argentina unit will now begin flying domestically there with routes from Buenos Aires to Bariloche, Córdoba, Iguazú, Mendoza, Neuquén and Salta.
The company lost more than $35 million for the full-year 2017, though it did swing to a «surprise» profit during the second quarter of this year. Some analysts have openly wondered how long Norwegian can keep flying, an assertion Kjos says is unfounded…
