Norwegian Air Shuttle

[Ray Finkle]

😆

Yes, patience is not something that I'm particularly known for, which is a nightmare at work 🙂

I've been particularly keen about Norwegian as I was hoping to book with them in May but it's too late now.

 

[User001]

So Norwegian have today announced Cork to JFK and BOS. Where the hell did those routes come from!?!

This company is so hard to predict!

 

[Jon Dempsey]

I can understand NYC and Boston.

 

[Ray Finkle]

If I'd spent the whole day coming up with route predictions then that wouldn't have been one of them!

I guess New York and Boston in particular do have strong ties with Ireland. Dublin has too much competition, so of the remaining airports maybe Cork offered the best deal :dunno:

From now on I'll expect the unexpected and not hope for too much from BHX until it's announced.

 

[User001]

I know Ireland has the cultural ties to the USA, but, as Ray has said, if you had asked to predict which UK/Eire airport would get the first trans-Atlantic flights outside LGW by Norwegian, Cork would have been close to bottom of my guess list.

It has no Tatl nor historically to see trends, it has no Norwegian flights currently, and there are markets that are much larger that could do with the flights.

It just shows you cannot second guess Norwegian, and it shows that the potential Norwegian long haul guess list from the UK and Eire has been blown wide open.

Previously I would have said BHX or EDI were the obvious choices, but Cork has shown that it appears an airport doesn't even need to have Norwegian flights to be considered.

On the Manchester thread, I have posted that the Norwegian beta site is saying MAN-BOS starts May 14th, but no flights bookable yet, so, who knows where the Norwegian dart will land next.

I had previously accepted that Manchester was a glorified football flight destination, but now, I don't know, as I said, this has just blown wide open!

 

[Ray Finkle]

It may be something or it may be a forthcoming transit flight as Oslo - Boston starts on the 14th May. MAN-OSL is currently only bookable until 9th May but looking at the schedule it seems that the next flight would be on Friday 13th making the route available from 14th May. That said no one saw Cork coming so who knows.

Maybe Norwegian are about to go for it big time out of Boston.

I think it depends on whether this announcement is a one off or whether this is to become the usual Norwegian M.O. It could simply be that Norwegian have been looking for an Irish destination outside of Dublin for a while and Cork came up with the goods.

It's always occurred to me that Norwegian like to go where they seem to see gaps in the market so if this type of announcement is to become the norm then I'd imagine it gives alot of hope to the likes of BRS, LBA, DSA etc.

The next few weeks will be very interesting.

 

[User001]

Heard from several Norwegian pilots that ORY and BCN will be next long haul bases with B788.

MAN and BHX to be new B737 SH bases with the Max to join both bases in 2017 for long haul to east Coast USA and possibly Dubai. Should be announced soon as transfers are being advertised soon.

The new Cork-Boston flights will be based by BCN crews. Flights will effectively be BCN-ORK-BOS.

 

[Jon Dempsey]

Stockholm, Bergen, Copenhagen & Helsinki now appear available on the beta site.

 

[Ray Finkle]

They're just connections at the moment via either BCN, MAD or AGP. Some of the destinations only have either inbound or outbound flights.

Whether it is just an anomaly in their system that links any city pair no matter the routing (which doesn't really fit) or whether it's an attempt of sorts to hide the loading of new routes we shall hopefully find out soon.

 

[IanFarquharson]

I think we will see more NAX routes in S16 but the base may not come until 2017.

Hope I am wrong.

Ian

 

[Brum X]

I think we will see more NAX routes in S16 but the base may not come until 2017.

Hope I am wrong.

Ian

At the end of the day, either scenario is great news for BHX.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Hope I am wrong.

Ian

Is this a hunch or have you heard a whisper or two?

As Brum X says either way is decent news and as long as we get a new route or two I think we have to be happy. If a base then follows in 2017 then all the better :smile:


I'm trying to stay positive as it has gone very, very quiet as far as Norwegian are concerned.

 

[Brum X]

Hope I am wrong.

Ian

Is this a hunch or have you heard a whisper or two?

As Brum X says either way is decent news and as long as we get a new route or two I think we have to be happy. If a base then follows in 2017 then all the better :smile:


I'm trying to stay positive as it has gone very, very quiet as far as Norwegian are concerned.

NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS RAY.

They are signing on the dotted line as we speak. I feel it in my bones. :smile:

 

[Ray Finkle]

I do hope so 😀

I've been thinking about the destinations added to the BHX route map and have been wondering if it could be done with one aircraft also doing some charter flying? I've based it on two sectors per day although some days could see three. I've also not included the Scandinavian routes as an Oslo and/or Stockholm based service would provide plenty of connections.

Dubrovnik - 2x weekly?
Nice - 2x weekly?
Catania - weekly?
Malta - 2x weekly?
Fuerteventura - 2x weekly?

That totals 9 weekly departures.

Warsaw is listed but with Wizz now on the route I can see only one winner there? I'd have thought Prague would be a much better option at say 3x weekly?

Then the German routes. There is no way we'll see Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Cologne so what's most likely? Munich would be up against Lufthansa and how many times has Cologne been tried? Hamburg needs more but again it's up against Germanwings. I'd say Berlin is most likely possibly at 3x weekly?

That's around 15 flights per week which is easy for one aircraft. There could also be greater frequencies or another route to make it a full weekly schedule.

On the other hand all of these destinations could have been added to mask their real intentions and this is totally wide of the mark!


Clear as mud eh! 🙄

 

[Brum X]

Great work Ray.

I really think that if we get a NAX base, it will start with x 2 737-800s :smile:


And as a nice gesture to the people of Brum, will have the Birmingham coat of arms under the nose of the aircraft. 😉

 

[nwoody2001]

Well the fact remains that Norwegian have not announced their summer schedule at any airport yet so until that's announced, its purely speculation. that said, with all other airlines announcing their s16 plans, Norwegian will have to soon. something appears to be keeping them!!

yes news of a base have gone quiet, but all other news still seems to suggest that Norwegian are committed to bhx so let see what comes from it! eitherway, with both their winter 15 and summer 16 showing 9 weekly flights, I would really hope for a significant increase in the summer schedule.... even if now new routes, I would hope for something akin to the following:

Madrid - 4x weekly (matching Iberia)
Barcelona - 4x weekly (similar to vuelling)
Malaga - 4x weekly
Gran Can - 3 x weekly
Tenerife - 3x weekly

18x weekly departures would be great and realistic to my mind, but that is purely speculation!!!

 

[Ray Finkle]

Well they did say that BHX expansion was subject to aircraft deliveries so that may be playing a part.

When asked Paul Kehoe is usually quite open about what's going on but he also seems to be quiet on the issue at the moment, as well as Norwegian themselves. I'd say that something is going on in the background whether it be good or bad.

 

[Markflyingman]

Well they did say that BHX expansion was subject to aircraft deliveries so that may be playing a part.

When asked Paul Kehoe is usually quite open about what's going on but he also seems to be quiet on the issue at the moment, as well as Norwegian themselves. I'd say that something is going on in the background whether it be good or bad.

We´ll know soon enough. But I think you might be right, there´s a different kind of quiet right now.

 

[User001]

A base is still very possible.

As said earlier, pilots are now being asked about BHX/MAN transfers, and, based aircraft are still being allocated around the system.

For example, Easyjet and Ryanair are basing more aircraft at Manchester next summer. This hasn't been announced yet. Norwegian would base 2 aircraft at BHX and 2 at MAN. So, if those 2 airlines are only just planning in 2 extra aircraft schedules each, then it's entirely feasible Norwegian are in the same boat and planning what to do with the aircraft.

Let's not loose hope yet.

 

[Ray Finkle]

As far as I am aware we've not actually heard anything official from either the airport or Norwegian about a base it's all just been rumours? As we know rumours can be anything from educated guesswork down to spotters fantasy so if we get a few new routes and some increses then I think we have to be happy?