Wow, I didn't see this one coming, Norwegian is on fire

Maybe this is a way to keep Scoot out of the market?

Originally I understand it was going to be Singapore and Tokyo, but couldn't get Russian overflight permission, so that aircraft went to launching Seattle and Denver.

This seems quite left field, but if it works it works.
Don't think that Singapore Airlines will be that worried though, different market entirely.

I've already tried to book MAD-LGW-SIN. The price is 470€ round-trip. Just amazing

Great news ! Starting at £179 O/W for 'Basic' is just amazing. As someone 45mins from LGW, the DY expansion is incredible & really good news ! All made possible by the B787 ?!?!

To mark the start of operations, Norwegian intends to offer one-way Singapore-to-London fares starting from S$199 for economy class, and premium-class tickets from S$839, inclusive of all fees and taxes, according to the press release.

Saw this on the local Channel New Asia site and went to check it out.
From SIN its SGD199.90 as stated (ok, 90 cents more...) but all return flights back from Gatwick are at minimum of SGD319.90 so SGD519.80 or about 346 Euro for two way.

Now contemplating a visit to the RAF Museum.

LuxuryTravelled wrote:

Originally I understand it was going to be Singapore and Tokyo, but couldn't get Russian overflight permission, so that aircraft went to launching Seattle and Denver.

The Norwegian AOC does not have Russian overflight permission iirc. I think the UK AOC should be able to because VS and BA are allowed to fly over Russia. Don't quote me on this though, because I'm not certain of this.

And £1339.00 return in Premium, that seems like a good bet.

If they can tie up a deal with one of the regional lowcosts for a bit of connectivity then this route could explode.

Very surprised they'd start SIN over BKK to where they already operate out of Scandinavia.

Jeeezuz! DY are ripping it up at LGW, good for them.

I don't agree Channex737, I think SQ and BA will be scratching their heads with this. They are defo going to lose punters to this service, especially at those prices, not least in Premium.

UAL777UK wrote:

Jeeezuz! DY are ripping it up at LGW, good for them.

I don't agree Channex737, I think SQ and BA will be scratching their heads with this. They are defo going to lose punters to this service, especially at those prices, not least in Premium.

Agree, DY Premium looks so much better than the BA offering and the same price.

TC957 wrote:

Very surprised they'd start SIN over BKK to where they already operate out of Scandinavia.

It makes sense. Surely SIN has higher average fares (notably non-stop with BA and SQ) than BKK, and at BKK they should compete with the basement-level ME3 connections.

Also London-Singapore works both ways (e.g. Singaporean students in London, etc). Less the case for BKK.

What would be the state of this flight after Brixet is in place?

What is their business model? Their routing strategy seems to be quite random.

sadiqutp wrote:

What would be the state of this flight after Brixet is in place?

No change. It is operated by Norwegian Air UK which is a subsidiary with a British air certificate and thus technically a British airline.

Channex737 wrote:

This seems quite left field, but if it works it works.
Don't think that Singapore Airlines will be that worried though, different market entirely.

No, but Scoot will be worried. This is serious competition for their Singapore-Athens flight. I know, Athens is at the other side of Europe but with all the low-cost in Europe this doesn't matter much. From Athens more or less all of Europe is covered.

I think the ones that should be worried are the ME3 carriers as this is a very cheap and convenient way to skip the Middle East. Scoot and Norwegian are often cheaper than Emirates for example.

PS Why did Norwegian never think about interlining with Air Asia? They're a key LCC player covering just about every destination in eastern Asia and they've shown interest in Europe but so far don't seem to get it done. Norwegian can do that for them. One thing: the major hubs for Air Asia are Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok Don Mueang. Norwegian serves neither. They do serve Bangkok, but only Suvarnabhumi. If they shift their Bangkok operations to Don Mueang and their Singapore operations to Kuala Lumpur they'd make a fine LCC partner for Air Asia and the other way around.

Luisvalero wrote:

I've already tried to book MAD-LGW-SIN. The price is 470€ round-trip. Just amazing

Not that amazing. BA often sells ex MAD/BCN/BIO to SIN for around €400 return and that includes luggage and meals etc.

ManchesterMAN wrote:

Luisvalero wrote:

I've already tried to book MAD-LGW-SIN. The price is 470€ round-trip. Just amazing

Not that amazing. BA often sells ex MAD/BCN/BIO to SIN for around €400 return and that includes luggage and meals etc.

Absolutely ! Done it myself £363.00 MAD-LHR-SIN-LHR-MAD including IB A345 to LHR. Taking advantage of those cheap ex EU fares !!

Russian overflight rights shouldn't be a problem, as avoiding Russian airspace on LGW-SIN only requires a less than 1% increase in flight distance compared to the great circle route.

theobcman wrote:

ManchesterMAN wrote:

Luisvalero wrote:

I've already tried to book MAD-LGW-SIN. The price is 470€ round-trip. Just amazing

Not that amazing. BA often sells ex MAD/BCN/BIO to SIN for around €400 return and that includes luggage and meals etc.

Absolutely ! Done it myself £363.00 MAD-LHR-SIN-LHR-MAD including IB A345 to LHR. Taking advantage of those cheap ex EU fares !!

I prefer to pay 470€ instead of 800€, call me crazy...

Excellent deal this is, ive looked at onward travel to Australia and can get a Scoot flight to OOL for £157 return, a little over £500 return when using DY to SIN

Interesting news. I don't see this being all about SIN though. Maybe DY will hook up with Scoot to provide great value onward connections to Australia, New Zealand & Indonesia. There's serious potential market potential here.

Given done pacts with othe LCC in Europe will Air Asia work with them in Asia?

Air Asia unable to make Europe Asia work them selves so a tie up with Norwegian will allow them focus on the local region. This would make sense.

Other option is Lion/malindo - personally I'd struggle to fly with them myself, still have visions of the water landing.

EZYAirbus wrote:

Excellent deal this is, ive looked at onward travel to Australia and can get a Scoot flight to OOL for £157 return, a little over £500 return when using DY to SIN

Well Scoot is a member of the Value Alliance, so could DY end up being a member?

I thought that DY was looking to add OSL-SIN. But still, a nice addition to the network.

TheLion wrote:

Interesting news. I don't see this being all about SIN though. Maybe DY will hook up with Scoot to provide great value onward connections to Australia, New Zealand & Indonesia. There's serious potential market potential here.

I don't think they'll hook up with Scoot, which is ultimately owned by Singapore Airlines. Scoot is their biggest competitor on this route. If they're looking for a feeder airline in Asia I'm going to put my money on Air Asia. Of course that would mean shift some destinations in Asia but that can be done.

Just imagine this: You're looking for a cheap flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu. Then some site comes up with Norwegian + Air Asia. Los Angeles - London Gatwick - Kuala Lumpur on Norwegian and then Kuala Lumpur - Osaka - Honolulu on Air Asia. Might just be the cheapest.

Armaghman wrote:

Given done pacts with othe LCC in Europe will Air Asia work with them in Asia?

Air Asia unable to make Europe Asia work them selves so a tie up with Norwegian will allow them focus on the local region. This would make sense.

Other option is Lion/malindo - personally I'd struggle to fly with them myself, still have visions of the water landing.

That's what I am suggesting above. Tie-ups with people like Cebu and Lion, and DY would end up running multiple frequencies for a lowcost way of flying into South East Asia's value-driven markets.

The potential is huge for a cheap alternative to the legacies. Backpackers would be all over it!!

How many based long-haul aircraft will be at Gatwick after the new routes to Denver, Seattle & Singapore commence and some frequency increases on existing routes?

According to this Danish article ( paywall , they apparently also have the also have the clearance to start OSL-SIN and CPH-SIN

http://www.check-in.dk/norwegian-klar-a ... ore-ruter/

Quite surprising Norwegian is starting LGW-SIN. One would expect HKG to be a bigger market. I guess Changi Airport's incentives and support for new airlines and city links helped tipped the scales. Scoot and SQ Group will not be pleased.

Will it only be operated by their LGW based crew or also their U.S based crew?

PatrickZ80 wrote:

TheLion wrote:

Interesting news. I don't see this being all about SIN though. Maybe DY will hook up with Scoot to provide great value onward connections to Australia, New Zealand & Indonesia. There's serious potential market potential here.

I don't think they'll hook up with Scoot, which is ultimately owned by Singapore Airlines. Scoot is their biggest competitor on this route. If they're looking for a feeder airline in Asia I'm going to put my money on Air Asia. Of course that would mean shift some destinations in Asia but that can be done.

Just imagine this: You're looking for a cheap flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu. Then some site comes up with Norwegian + Air Asia. Los Angeles - London Gatwick - Kuala Lumpur on Norwegian and then Kuala Lumpur - Osaka - Honolulu on Air Asia. Might just be the cheapest.

Air Asia could make more sense although my post was more in response to their new SIN flight.

Singapore is an interesting place but not really the sort of route you'd expect DY to choose over the multitude of other options in the Asia Pacific region. That's why I think they'll look for a connecting partner and examine other routes like you hint.

Seamless, low cost one stop connections onto Bali, Australia & New Zealand is definuely a market DY could take ownership of and effectively be a first mover in this era (with Air Asia's own one stop options having ended a few years back).

All the lols at your 3 stopper LAX-HNL routing

However I really hope such a crazy routing never comes to pass though as it's appallingly bad for the environment. In fact there are enough ludicrously unnecessary indirect routings already using the ME3, such as flying from Europe to West Africa via DXB. I remember Etihad cut Alitalia's ACC and LOS flights in favour of routing pax through Abu Dhabi, more than doubling the flight time! I mean

PatrickZ80 wrote:

Channex737 wrote:

This seems quite left field, but if it works it works.
Don't think that Singapore Airlines will be that worried though, different market entirely.

No, but Scoot will be worried. This is serious competition for their Singapore-Athens flight. I know, Athens is at the other side of Europe but with all the low-cost in Europe this doesn't matter much. From Athens more or less all of Europe is covered.

I think the ones that should be worried are the ME3 carriers as this is a very cheap and convenient way to skip the Middle East. Scoot and Norwegian are often cheaper than Emirates for example.

PS Why did Norwegian never think about interlining with Air Asia? They're a key LCC player covering just about every destination in eastern Asia and they've shown interest in Europe but so far don't seem to get it done. Norwegian can do that for them. One thing: the major hubs for Air Asia are Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok Don Mueang. Norwegian serves neither. They do serve Bangkok, but only Suvarnabhumi. If they shift their Bangkok operations to Don Mueang and their Singapore operations to Kuala Lumpur they'd make a fine LCC partner for Air Asia and the other way around.

Agreed.

Scoot, AirAsia and the ME3 (in that order) are the ones worried as they offer the lowest fares ex-SIN to Europe.
SQ wouldn't bat an eyelid. They have their niche in the upper end of the market when they ceded the lower-end market to the ME3 a decade ago.

If I were Norwegian, I'd team up with Airasia to keep Scoot out. Scoot is a new entrant to Europe.

Nonetheless, this would benefit thousands of Singaporeans, Malaysians, Indonesians and people from other parts of Southeast Asia/South Asia who use SIN as their base.

I have a Malaysian friend who wants to visit London, but with the Malaysian economy and currency doing pretty badly these days, he told me that EK's S$900 round-trip fares were a bit of a stretch for his budget. With Norwegian now in the fray, his trip to London would probably be possible now.

A little tip to save even more money - book DY flights through their Norwegian.no site. I've saved quite a lot by doing this. Make sure your bank/credit card doesn't have foreign transaction fees as it's priced in NOK.

TheLion wrote:

Singapore is an interesting place but not really the sort of route you'd expect DY to choose over the multitude of other options in the Asia Pacific region. That's why I think they'll look for a connecting partner and examine other routes like you hint.

Seamless, low cost one stop connections onto Bali, Australia & New Zealand is definuely a market DY could take ownership of and effectively be a first mover in this era (with Air Asia's own one stop options having ended a few years back).

Why not SIN? 1.2 million pax between London and SIN with none of it on LCC. Add to that the fact that getting rights in SIN is easier than anywhere else in Asia and you have a no-brainer. They only other city which might be similar is BKK but you fight against TG which is offering pretty low fares.

Also if they fly OSL-SIN, then they will be the only airline on that route.

Luisvalero wrote:

theobcman wrote:

ManchesterMAN wrote:

Not that amazing. BA often sells ex MAD/BCN/BIO to SIN for around €400 return and that includes luggage and meals etc.

Absolutely ! Done it myself £363.00 MAD-LHR-SIN-LHR-MAD including IB A345 to LHR. Taking advantage of those cheap ex EU fares !!

I prefer to pay 470€ instead of 800€, call me crazy...

Who's paying €800 ? DY was 470€ & BA £363 in the example above