The airline's first foray into the Southern hemisphere will leave LGW tonight and will be flown by brand new 787-9 G-CKOF, with Spanish artist Joan Miro on its tail plane. The aircraft was delivered from PAE to LGW on Feb 6th and this will be its first commercial flight. Expected @ EZE at 8:15 AM on the15th.

https://twitter.com/asarco_ES_ar/status ... 3200912385

Full flight leaving LGW tonight. No WiFi yet on this brand new plane.

dcajet wrote:

https://twitter.com/asarco_ES_ar/status/963879613200912385

Full flight leaving LGW tonight. No WiFi yet on this brand new plane.

And landed this morning with 309 pax, with 344 capacity. Nice launch!

Tough competition to BA in the more price sensitive market.

Video from inside the Boeing 787-9 arriving in Buenos Aires and getting a water salute:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfEYewmaR3I

Where are the IFE's?

How many "revenue" passengers were on board?

Inaugural high profile flights like these will always be full. They have to be. Norwegian doesn't want media reports of half empty planes. I'll bet there were all sorts of "friends and family" on that flight for a quick 24 hr visit to BA.

Besides, with a 4Q 2017 system BELF of 99.4%, the plane better be full. I don't know of too many businesses that can maintain the sort of atrocious operating margins Norwegian has sustained over the years.

"Lose a little on each flight, but make it up with volume...."

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BritTraveller wrote:

Where are the IFE's?

In the arm rest. The video is from their premium economy section

Found it interesting that both on the southbound leg and now on the northbound return to Gatwick, the flight has stayed clear of Brazilian airspace. And it is not weather or traffic related, as everyone else was cruising over Brazil, which is usually the shortest/quickest route from EZE to Europe. As as result of the longer-ish route taken by Norwegian, BA 245, that left LHR @ 10:36 PM, 22 minutes after DI7505 left LGW, managed to land @ EZE a few minutes earlier. In fact, Norwegian was put on one of the holding stacks near EZE, as it had BA, DL and AR planes ahead for landing on Rwy 11 this AM. Perhaps Norwegian is still working with Brazil regarding overflying rights?

Southbound route


The Euro arrivals on their way to EZE - one can see Norwegian on a more easterly track, while the rest of the Euro-airlines are all over Brazil, including BA from LHR


Northbound route - again, well clear from Brazil

Norwegian's first Buenos Aires - London flight taking off from EZE earlier today; 12h 20 min flight.

dcajet wrote:

Found it interesting that both on the southbound leg and now on the northbound return to Gatwick, the flight has stayed clear of Brazilian airspace.

Saw somewhere that the Brazilians were p****d-off with Norwegian starting up a domestic Argentine airline. Wonder if this has anything to do with DY flights taking a wide-berth around Brazil ? Have they been denied Brazilian over-flying rights ?

SelseyBill wrote:

dcajet wrote:

Found it interesting that both on the southbound leg and now on the northbound return to Gatwick, the flight has stayed clear of Brazilian airspace.

Saw somewhere that the Brazilians were p****d-off with Norwegian starting up a domestic Argentine airline. Wonder if this has anything to do with DY flights taking a wide-berth around Brazil ? Have they been denied Brazilian over-flying rights ?

I do not think so. Highly doubt it. What would Brazil stand to gain from such a stance and how would it be affected by Norwegian opening an airline in Argentina? One would think they have bigger fish to fry. Besides, Brazil (like any other country) receives a financial compensation when aircraft use its airspace.

It is also worth mentioning that - not often - the track taken by Norwegian is not unheard of. I've seen Lufty and Air Europa go around Uruguay and avoid Brazil's air space altogether on their way to Europe. But the bulk of flights to Europe from Argentina generally take an inland route, going "feet wet" only over NE Brazil.

SelseyBill wrote:

dcajet wrote:

Found it interesting that both on the southbound leg and now on the northbound return to Gatwick, the flight has stayed clear of Brazilian airspace.

Saw somewhere that the Brazilians were p****d-off with Norwegian starting up a domestic Argentine airline. Wonder if this has anything to do with DY flights taking a wide-berth around Brazil ? Have they been denied Brazilian over-flying rights ?

Only rumors that the brazilian "triopoly" (LATAM, Azul and GOL) are lobbying hard against the likes of norwegian, but I think they were saving some bucks or testing the plane.... it is not hard to get overflight permits here...

SelseyBill wrote:

Saw somewhere that the Brazilians were p****d-off with Norwegian starting up a domestic Argentine airline. Wonder if this has anything to do with DY flights taking a wide-berth around Brazil ? Have they been denied Brazilian over-flying rights ?

More likely the Norwegian pilots wanted to make sure they arrived at EZE without being separated from their wallets....

jimbo737 wrote:

How many "revenue" passengers were on board?

Inaugural high profile flights like these will always be full. They have to be. Norwegian doesn't want media reports of half empty planes. I'll bet there were all sorts of "friends and family" on that flight for a quick 24 hr visit to BA.

Besides, with a 4Q 2017 system BELF of 99.4%, the plane better be full. I don't know of too many businesses that can maintain the sort of atrocious operating margins Norwegian has sustained over the years.

"Lose a little on each flight, but make it up with volume...."

Airline routes always take time to develop. Norwegians margins aren't on flat growth. They have high growth %s. Yield/Margin grows over time.

SelseyBill wrote:

dcajet wrote:

Found it interesting that both on the southbound leg and now on the northbound return to Gatwick, the flight has stayed clear of Brazilian airspace.

Saw somewhere that the Brazilians were p****d-off with Norwegian starting up a domestic Argentine airline. Wonder if this has anything to do with DY flights taking a wide-berth around Brazil ? Have they been denied Brazilian over-flying rights ?

More likely Norwegian found that the cost saving of not flying over Brazilian airspace (having to pay for overflight rights) was more than the cost of a slight detour.

incitatus wrote:

SelseyBill wrote:

Saw somewhere that the Brazilians were p****d-off with Norwegian starting up a domestic Argentine airline. Wonder if this has anything to do with DY flights taking a wide-berth around Brazil ? Have they been denied Brazilian over-flying rights ?

More likely the Norwegian pilots wanted to make sure they arrived at EZE without being separated from their wallets....

And the most brilliant comment goes to.....

incitatus wrote:

SelseyBill wrote:

Saw somewhere that the Brazilians were p****d-off with Norwegian starting up a domestic Argentine airline. Wonder if this has anything to do with DY flights taking a wide-berth around Brazil ? Have they been denied Brazilian over-flying rights ?

More likely the Norwegian pilots wanted to make sure they arrived at EZE without being separated from their wallets....

OMG! HAHAHAHAH it seems that what everyone thinks about Brazil has changed from easy sex to get mugged. HAHAHA
This is not what I'd like to hear about where I live but you're not far away from the truth, unfortunally.

Goodbye wrote:

More likely Norwegian found that the cost saving of not flying over Brazilian airspace (having to pay for overflight rights) was more than the cost of a slight detour.

That indeed may well be the case; Norwegian's second flight to EZE, a daytime southbound flight, once again avoided Brazilian airspace. It was flown by G-CKOF.



And on a related topic, a few months after closing its EZE crew base, BA will be moving its LHR-EZE flights to its Mixed Fleet Crew from Worldwide Crew, effective June.

Goodbye wrote:

SelseyBill wrote:

dcajet wrote:

Found it interesting that both on the southbound leg and now on the northbound return to Gatwick, the flight has stayed clear of Brazilian airspace.

Saw somewhere that the Brazilians were p****d-off with Norwegian starting up a domestic Argentine airline. Wonder if this has anything to do with DY flights taking a wide-berth around Brazil ? Have they been denied Brazilian over-flying rights ?

More likely Norwegian found that the cost saving of not flying over Brazilian airspace (having to pay for overflight rights) was more than the cost of a slight detour.

Man, this company is run by some really smart people! They did the math, so it's only fair that they reap the benefits of it. Kudos to DY!

I know nothing about overflight rights but if that's the case, are LH/AF/BA/AR/IB etc so dumb they don't see a benefit either? maybe soon we'll see them flying a more common path, they just didn't bother to make the arrangements for the first flights. I may be wrong but it doesn't sound right that a detour is less expensive than overflying.

AtomicGarden wrote:

I know nothing about overflight rights but if that's the case, are LH/AF/BA/AR/IB etc so dumb they don't see a benefit either? maybe soon we'll see them flying a more common path, they just didn't bother to make the arrangements for the first flights. I may be wrong but it doesn't sound right that a detour is less expensive than overflying.

Actually it is not uncommon for LH and UX to follow this easterly track. I suppose each airline and their flight dispatch teams know what they are doing, including Norwegian, in spite of the Norwegian bashers on here.

jimbo737 wrote:

How many "revenue" passengers were on board?

Inaugural high profile flights like these will always be full. They have to be. Norwegian doesn't want media reports of half empty planes. I'll bet there were all sorts of "friends and family" on that flight for a quick 24 hr visit to BA.

Besides, with a 4Q 2017 system BELF of 99.4%, the plane better be full. I don't know of too many businesses that can maintain the sort of atrocious operating margins Norwegian has sustained over the years.

"Lose a little on each flight, but make it up with volume...."

FWIW, second week of Norwegian flying between LGW & EZE, and today's flight arrived EZE with 277 paxs, or an 83% LF.

A little news segment of the arrival of the Boeing 787 to Buenos Aires:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-WyGQYoBts