How $69 Flights to Europe Could Become a Reality

A European airline is working to expand its long-haul offerings with trans-Atlantic flights for as little as $69 one way.

Reuters reports that Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA, also known as Norwegian, is looking to add flights from the United States to Edinburgh, Scotland, and Bergen, Norway, as early as 2017.

Although the airline plans to offer some very cheap fights, Norwegian chief executive Bjørn Kjos says in an interview that tickets for these routes will likely average around $300 round-trip. That’s still more than $200 cheaper than many of the airline’s current fares.

The third-largest budget carrier in Europe plans to lower fares partly by flying in and out of less busy U.S. airports with lower fees, like Westchester County Airport in New York and Bradley International Airport in Connecticut.

Norwegian intends to offer more nonstop flights to small cities on the Atlantic coast. That differs from airlines such as Germany’s Deutsche Lufthansa AG that make connections in airport hubs to give travelers access to hundreds of cities.

Kjos states:

“I think you will see a lot to that effect within five years’ time. What will happen to (Lufthansa) when everyone starts to fly direct?”

Norwegian is a publicly traded company listed on Norway’s Oslo Stock Exchange.

The airline served more than 2.4 million passengers last month, a 9 percent increase compared with September 2014, it also announced this week.

In a news release Kjos states:

“Norwegian’s long-haul operation continues to make a positive contribution to our growth, with 96 percent of the seats filled in September. We also see that an increasing number of passengers are taking advantage of our extensive European network to connect onwards to the U.S. or Thailand.”

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