Norwegian Air Shuttle

[Bhx_fifteen]

I flew to Barcelona today with Norwegian, and they were phenomenal!
I paid just £76RTN which was cheaper than Ryanair and monarch at the time of booking in March.
The 737 was clean and modern, with great Recaro thin seats. Whilst they were thin, they were still extremely comfortable and at the perfect angle. Legroom was amongst the best I've experienced for short haul.
The flight was completely full and the flight departed and arrived on time. The crew were attentive, and the free wifi was great - it even showed you a map of where the plane was on your smartphone/tablet/pc and a countdown to how long until landing.
Norwegian are an excellent airline and I will DEFINITELY be travelling them again. I'm glad to see their success at BHX and I hope it continues!

 

[Ray Finkle]

Great stuff.

I've heard they are a good airline but it's nice to hear it from personnel experience. It sounds like they're just what BHX needs :good:

I can't wait to try them myself now

It's also good to hear that Barcelona was totally full despite all the competition we now have on the route.

 

[Ray Finkle]

I also meant to ask do they have charging points on board? I'm thinking whether my daughters ipad will have enough charge to last the airport and the flight.

 

[Bhx_fifteen]

Sorry Ray only just seen this. Unforuntately they don't have charging points on board.

---

I found the route map on Norwegian's website very interesting
http://www.norwegian.com/uk/flight/route-map/
They show Birmingham as having just 5 destinations (as we know). From Manchester, dozens of desintations come up through their Oslo and Stockholm connections, so I too would be very keen for some Scandanavian routes to commence. Bring on the Summer '16 schedule!

 

[nwoody2001]

in fairness that routemap is awfully confusing, and why they feel the need to all transit destinations on, i'll never know...

interestingly though looking at the routemap, we appear to be the ONLY Norweigen destination that doesn't connect in with their scandiavian base, so surely its only a matter of time into they do expand to either oslo or Stockholm!!!

 

[Ray Finkle]

Sorry Ray only just seen this. Unforuntately they don't have charging points on board.

---

I found the route map on Norwegian's website very interesting
http://www.norwegian.com/uk/flight/route-map/
They show Birmingham as having just 5 destinations (as we know). From Manchester, dozens of desintations come up through their Oslo and Stockholm connections, so I too would be very keen for some Scandanavian routes to commence. Bring on the Summer '16 schedule!

Cheers mate :good:

Sadly the Norwegian Air UK Twitter account has been deleted which is a shame as they were very helpful and quite informative.

One of their last Tweets was to say that S16 is being worked on and they were hopeful that it would be released towards the end of July. I asked if there were any new routes planned for BHX and the reply was that it depends on aircraft deliveries but they were 'working closely' with BHX.

 

[Brum X]

I like that they are working with BHX, this sounds positive. Does anybody know how many aircraft Norweigan are expcting and the expected delivery dates. Maybe something for us all to look out for in the future.

 

[Ray Finkle]

According to planespotters.net LN-NHE is their latest 738 delivered on May 19th and was model number 41136.

LN-NHF is next and looks to be near the top of the list with model number 42075.

H,J and K are further along with numbers 42069, 42070 and 42078 respectively.

http://www.planespotters.net/Production ... 7-800?p=77

Wikipedia says the A320NEO will enter service in 2016 and the 737MAX in 2017 but I can't find any exact dates.

 

[Ray Finkle]

:smile:

 

[Bhx_fifteen]

Norwegian currently have 90 short haul aircraft (87 737-800s and 3 737-300s awaiting retirement). They have a further 43 737-800s on order.

They also have 100 737-8 MAX (with options for a further 100) and 100 A320 NEOs (with options for a further 50). Very exciting times ahead for Norwegian! Although Norwegian's CEO a did admit that he didn't necessarily intend for all aircraft to be utilised by the airline - he was incentivised by the price due to economies of scale and said Norwegin may lease out excess aircraft.

I find it very interesting that Norwegian opted for both the next generation of 737s as well as the A320. The only reason I can think as to why they've turned to Airbus as well as Boeing is due to lower seat capacity for less popular routes. The 737 MAX a will carry 186 passengers in Norwegian's configuration and the A320s 168.

*sits back and pictures dozens of A320 NEOs and 737 MAXs parked up at BHX when they open up a base there*

We can but hope!

 

[BHXsupporter]

From the Airbus site:
'As a result of an optimised cabin space and increased exit limits, the A320neo (new engine option) accommodates 165 passengers in two classes or up to 189 in a high-density configuration.'

 

[Jon Dempsey]

High density meaning "tight pack!!"

 

[jfy1999]

I guess Ryanair must be pretty high density then, wasn't there a story floating round about them looking into standing areas so they could be even more high density?

 

[Jon Dempsey]

I guess Ryanair must be pretty high density then, wasn't there a story floating round about them looking into standing areas so they could be even more high density?

Mr O'Leary drumming up some free publicity I'd imagine. The man is a marketing genius.

Every time I've flown with Ryanair, we've booked extra legroom seats so never had a problem.

Very impressed with the product though, it does exactly what it says on the tin, no more no less.

I couldn't believe the boarding efficiency. Priority pax are standing past the gate, waiting for the aircraft to disembark, with standard boarding queueing behind them either cleared for boarding or waiting to get cleared.

Monarch have a long long way to go to reach that sort if efficiency.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Madrid and Malaga are now bookable through until June 2016. Both are showing as down to 2x weekly over this summer but it's very early days so I imagine there's a good chance that there will be changes.

At the moment Madrid switches to Thur and Sun from the end of March. To be honest I wouldn't be surprised if the Tuesday flight doesn't return as looking at the prices this year it has appeared to be the weakest. The Thur and Sun flights have both looked strong though and it's not uncommon for them to sell out. It would be nice to see 4x weekly though with Fri and Mon added.

Malaga is still showing as the same schedule we're seeing through the winter on Mondays and Fridays.

BCN, LPA and TFS aren't bookable past the end of March yet but hopefully it's a sign that things are starting to move :smile:

 

[Brum X]

Great to see Summer 16 getting off to a start with Norweigan, looking forward to seeing what is planned for BHX. As you say id like to see Madrid x4 weekly next summer and similar increases on the other routes.


:rockon:

 

[Ray Finkle]

Yeah it's definitely one to keep an eye on, lets just hope we get some good news :smile:

 

[nwoody2001]

well Norweigen have stated their intention to get the full s16 schedule out towards the end of July so lets just hope that we'll hear some good news over the next 4-6 weeks.....

 

[nwoody2001]

..and on that note, Norweigen have just announced the start of LGW - BOS from may 2016 so it would indeed appear that net summers schedule is starting to take shape!!!

 

[Ray Finkle]

Which means a third Dreamliner based at LGW.

As on March 27th 2016 BHX's flights from Madrid and Malaga will change from a 'DY' code to a 'D8' code. No other routes are bookable.