Norwegian Air Shuttle’s (Norwegian.com) (Oslo) route network from London Gatwick continues to expand. Norwegian is adding four new destinations this winter; Madeira and La Palma for the sun-seekers and Grenoble and Salzburg for the ski enthusiasts.
Norwegian is also increasing the number of weekly departures on its routes from London Gatwick to Lanzarote, Rome and Larnaca.
From October 28 and November 1, respectively, Norwegian offers sun-seekers two weekly flights from London Gatwick to the Portuguese island of Madeira and one weekly flight to La Palma in the Canary Islands. Those more keen on white and powdery conditions in the Alps this winter, can from December 13 fly nonstop to Grenoble and Salzburg once a week.
Today, Norwegian is a major player at London Gatwick airport. The airline established a crew base at the airport in 2013 and now offers 41 routes from London Gatwick. Norwegian has eight Boeing 737-800 aircraft based at London Gatwick today as well as around 90 pilots and 200 cabin crew members.
On the financial side, Norwegian (NAS) reported a second quarter 2014 net profit of 128 million NOK ($20.5 million). According to the carrier, “The second quarter is characterized by strong growth and a record high load factor, and influenced by significant, one-off costs, a weak Norwegian currency and high oil prices. The strike from labor union Parat earlier this year alone cost Norwegian over 100 million NOK in lost revenue.
The second quarter figures also reflect Norwegian’s growth strategy and the company’s goal to fill all its new seats. Despite significant costs related to the start-up of the long-haul operation and higher costs due to the weak Norwegian currency, the unit cost (CASK) is down, strengthening Norwegian’s competitive advantage further. Over the past year, Norwegian has introduced seven Dreamliner aircraft to its long-haul operation.
The total revenue in the second quarter was over 5 BNOK, up 26 percent from the same quarter last year. The pre-tax result (EBT) was -137 MNOK. 6.4 million passengers chose to travel with Norwegian during the second quarter, which is an increase of 16 percent and almost 900 000 passengers more than the same period last year. The company’s traffic growth (RPK) was considerably higher at 46 percent, which reflects that each of Norwegian’s passengers on average flies significantly longer than they did a year ago.”
Record high load factor
Norwegian realized a strong production growth (ASK) of 41 percent. The growth is, naturally, stronger in new markets. Despite Norwegian’s strong capacity growth, the company is still filling its seats. The load factor in this quarter was 80 percent, up three percentage points from the same quarter last year, which is record high for a second quarter.
Copyright Photo: Ton Jochems/AirlinersGallery.com. Boeing 737-8JP LN-NGT (msn 41125) taxies at Palma de Mallorca (PMI) with Anton K.H. Jakobsen on the tail.
Norwegian: 
Current routes from London Gatwick:
Looks like they failed to mention, the repeated failings of Norwegian. Constant delays/cancellations, lost/stolen baggage, charging of customers for their mistakes and zero customer support when needed. The Twitter hashtag #NeverFlyNorwegian is trending with daily complaints, along with the Facebook group “Norwegian Airlines Experiences From Hell” growing daily in members. Norwegian are day by day making Ryanair seem like a five star choice, compared to their services.
Thank you Matthew. There is always two sides of every story and thanks for this side. There is a growing trend to plow ahead and let the customers complain anyway with these ultra low-fare carriers who are growing in their numbers. However Ryanair and now Spirit have backed off a bit lately so there is some hope that they will not forget their customer base totally. Unfortunately the ultra low-fare model works and more passengers are flying on them each day and more airlines will probably convert. Every passenger should do some online homework before they click the buy button for an airline they have never flown on. Knowledge is power in the information age. All the best.
Bruce
Hi Bruce,
Thank you very much for your reply, you are very correct in what you say, and that is the beauty of a story it can unravel in many ways, with different twists on turns depending on the way it is viewed or what someones personal experiences my be when it comes to the subject.
In this case i just wanted to let people know the passengers experience when it comes to the airline, as people always get to hear the story the way the airline would want you to see it, with their huge budgets and PR teams. But when it comes to the little people, in this case the passengers it not always so easy to get your stories out.
I miss the old age of air travel, i know it was more expensive but you got what you paid for and knew what to expect. The ever growing monopoly of low cost airlines seems to be taking over the industry, and of course the service suffers as a result. As proved here you cant always go on industry surveys and reviewers, as i am sure you know SkyTrax just awarded Norwegian third place in best budget carrier, something i find impossible to believe. I will in future go by independent reviews and customer experiences, as i know now you get the truth from these sources.
Thank you for the well written article and all the best for the future
Thank you again Matthew. I usually stay away from reporting industry “awards”.
I try to report the news as best I can adding the historic perspective. I always encourage everyone to be an informed consumer and to seek out all sides of an issue. I think you are following the right path – be informed before you buy.
Thank you for your readership and support.
Bruce