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Though it sounds so easy, hopping over the pond can be quite an expensive jump for many travelers. Norwegian Air Shuttle’s CEO thinks he can make it a lot cheaper to fly between the U.S. and Europe — as low as $69 per one-way ticket — by flying out of regional airports that charge lower fees than busier, bigger airports.
Norwegian is the third-largest budget airline in Europe, and wants to further spread its wings in the U.S. by offering cheap fares to Edinburgh and Bergen, Norway by 2017, CEO Bjørn Kjos told NBC News. To accomplish this, the airline would use airports that have little to no international service at the moment, like New York’s Westchester County Airport and Connecticut’s Bradley International Airport, just north of Hartford.
Round-trip prices would likely run closer to $300 on average, Kjos said, but that’s still a lot less than current fares from Norwegian that run more than $500, due to the higher fees at bigger airports. The airline is trying to cut prices and get a piece of the pie currently enjoyed by traditional carriers that rule the skies above the Atlantic, like Lufthansa.
“I think you will see a lot to that effect within five years’ time,” Kjos said. “What will happen to (Lufthansa) when everyone starts to fly direct?”
Before his plan can happen, regulators would have to set up customs stations at U.S. regional airports to handle international traffic, something Kjos says he’s confident can be arranged.
Norwegian will have competition from other budget carriers, however: Iceland’s Wow Air has offered trans-Atlantic flights for as low as $99 one way between Boston and Paris, and Lufthansa’s low-cost offshoot Eurowings is also starting cheap long-haul flights.
Then there was the report in March that said European budget airline Ryanair was planning to offer $20 flights between the U.S., an idea that the airline later denied.
Norwegian Air CEO Says $69 Flights From U.S. to Europe Coming Soon [NBC News]
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