An article in Expansión details how the low cost airline Norwegian will operate seven new routes between the Iberian Peninsula and the Canary Islands beginning in October. Starting the 25th of October the company will fly to Gran Canaria and Tenerife Norte from Madrid. On the 26th of October they will begin flights to Gran Canaria and Tenerife Norte from Barcelona and the next day begin flights to Fuerteventura. They will also fly out of Malaga to Tenerife Norte starting the 26th October and to Gran Canaria starting the 30th of October. These route additions will lead to the incorporation of two Boeing 737s in the company’s Spanish fleet. Norwegian, which has 900 employees in Spain, will add 150 new jobs.
According to Aerotendencias.com, tickets are already being sold. Tickets start at 39.60 including taxes. They go on to say that Norwegian will offer 10,416 weekly seats between the Peninsula and the Canaries resulting in 230,000 seats during the first winter season. These additional seats will help fill a void in connectivity which has arisen in the last years. In addition, the Aerotendencias.com article comments on the fact that Norwegian will be the first airline in Spain with domestic operations that offers free wifi to its passengers.
Expansión quotes the founder and CEO of Norwegain, Bjorn Kjos, as saying that the expansion shows the company’s strong ties to Spain. He says that the company will focus more on creating new routes out of existing bases, which include Madrid and Barcelona, rather than worrying about creating new bases. Kjos also mentioned that they will be adding new domestic Spanish routes. They currently operate 133 routes in Spain from Barcelona, Madrid, Alicante, Malaga, Tenerife Sur and Gran Canaria.
Kjos also indicated that starting in 2017 the company will operate routes between Spain and the United States. He hinted that they would operate to airports where they are already in operation including New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. They also want to incorporate Europe-Asia flights but as of yet do not have specified destinations or specified operation dates.
Photo: Norwegian Air Shuttle, Barcelona by Fotero – Flickr
I presume that TFN and LPA have been targetted by Norwegian due to the dominance of I2/UX on those islands. Thankfully, in Lanzarote, RYR remains the principal carrier to and from the Peninsula!