Norwegian plans to fly to South America from Barcelona in 2017

Norwegian Air Shuttle plans to offer direct flights between Barcelona and Latin America starting in 2017, according to its founder and CEO Bjorn Kjos, in an interview with Spain's EFE Agency. The first Latin American destinations from Barcelona being considered by the low-cost Norwegian carrier are Argentina and Chile, the same ones that it plans to inaugurate, also in 2017, from European capitals such as Oslo, London, and Paris.

At the end of 2017 the flights to Latin America from Barcelona will be added to the first long-haul routes that Norwegian will operate from the Catalan airport, starting next June, to four North American destinations --Los Angeles, San Francisco (Oakland), New York (Newark), and Miami (Fort Lauderdale). Barcelona will join other European airports such as Paris, London, and Oslo, from which the Norwegian company already offers long-range flights, especially to the USA (11 destinations).

In Spain, the airline sees more opportunity to begin its transatlantic expansion in Barcelona --where it will be the only carrier offering direct flights to California-- than in Madrid, where there are already many options to fly to America, although Kjos assures that Norwegian "will not forget" the Spanish capital in its future plans.

Savings for passengers who travel with Norwegian to California could reach 40%, while the fare difference for flying with the Norwegian low-cost to New York or Miami will also be significant. The latter two cities will have flights from 179 euros each way, and those to California, from 199 euros each way. Passengers can also opt for "premium" class, which in both cases would add around 100 euros to the air fare each way.

After a 44% increase in capacity in its plans for this winter, and the opening of new routes to destinations such as Tel Aviv, Marrakech, Rome, and Iceland, Norwegian hopes to end this year with more than 6.2 million passengers transported to Spain, which would be an increase of 18% compared to 5.25 million in 2015.

Tourism boosts results

Kjos stressed that Spain is a "very popular" destination, and currently "more so than ever" due to security problems from terrorist attacks suffered by other competing markets; Turkey is an example of this, as Norwegian has reduced its capacity there so as to expand its Spanish routes. The executive is convinced that the influx of international tourists to Spain will continue to grow in coming years because people prefer to go to safe places, and Spain is a "very attractive" destination that is perceived as safe.

Norwegian's CEO added that Spaniards represent a lower percentage of Norwegian's demand, except for routes that originate in Madrid and for domestic flights that the company started operating a year ago. Some of these broke the monopoly of other carriers, such as Vueling for the route between Barcelona and Bilbao.

Norwegian flies to nine domestic destinations and has not ruled out adding more in the future, although not in the short term. It will also not discount adding new bases to the 7 already established in Spain. However, Kjos remarked that before increasing the number of bases in Spain, which is already its leading country, exceeding even Norway in this aspect, the company will add more aircraft (it currently has 25). He noted that Spain is also Norwegian's second-largest market by passenger volume.

In 2016, Norwegian’s workforce in Spain has grown by 30%, to 1,200 employees, while in 2017 the airline is expecting an even greater growth, depending on the number of planes that end up being located at its Spanish bases.