Norwegian Air: $65 one-way fares from Northeast to Europe now on sale

Norwegian Air is bringing nonstop European flights to three small Northeast airports, adding 10 new trans-Atlantic routes that initially will go on sale for as little as $65 one way.

The fast-growing European discount carrier announced the expansion Thursday, revealing plans for five trans-Atlantic routes from Providence, four from Newburgh, N.Y., and one from Hartford, Conn. The new routes include destinations in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland. (Scroll to bottom for schedule and route details)

Norwegian’s $65 fares to Europe: What’s the catch?

The first of the new flights kick off in June, with Norwegian offering special introductory fares of $65 one-way to Europe. The special return fares will run €69 or £69, depending on the destination – though overseas taxes can add the equivalent of up to $200 on Norwegian’s U.S.-bound flights.

As of early Wednesday morning, the $65 fares (taxes included) to Europe showed fairly broad availability on Norwegian's website -- though the fares had largely dried up by mid-afternoon. While they lasted, the introductory return fares were roughly $80-$100 from the airports in Ireland and Northern Ireland, meaning some round trips had been available for less than $150 at the special fares. Return flights from Scotland started at about $226, making a round trip cost about $300 at the introductory fares.

Long-term, Norwegian says its lowest fares on the routes will start at $99 one way. Norwegian’s bargain-basement introductory fares come as it leads a new set of European discount airlines set their sights on U.S. airports. Norwegian, along with Icelandic upstart WOW Air, have added multiple new routes between the USA and Europe during the past two years.

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But Norwegian has been growing the fastest, using its Boeing 787 Dreamliners to add routes from multiple U.S. cities to more than a half-dozen different destinations in Europe. And it may be no coincidence that its introductory fares from the Northeast have bested the headline-grabbing $69 one-way fares that WOW offered on its flights from California earlier this year.

Norwegian acknowledged its $65 fares are meant to drum up publicity.

“That’s how we do it, instead of spending huge amounts on marketing,” Lars Sande, Norwegian’s SVP of Sales, said in a phone interview with Today in the Sky. “People really pay attention and then you get the word of mouth for people to try your product.”

Norwegian and WOW each operate under low cost models in which they advertise low base fares but charge extra for a bevy of add-on items. Such models are common among airlines in both Europe and the United States. In the U.S., Frontier, Spirit and Allegiant all employ such a strategy. But Norwegian and WOW are among the first modern discounters to meaningfully expand the model to flights across the Atlantic.

As for the new routes coming to the U.S. Northeast, Norwegian will fly nonstop from Newburgh to Belfast, Northern Ireland; Dublin; Edinburgh, Scotland; and Shannon, Ireland. From Providence, Norwegian also will fly to the Irish city of Cork. Connecticut’s Bradley International Airport near Hartford landed nonstop service to Edinburgh.

While Norwegian first made its mark in the U.S. with its Boeing Dreamliners, the carrier's new service comes as it prepares to begin flying its first Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.

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The “MAX” is the newest variant of Boeing’s best-selling 737 narrowbody, and the updated narrowbody planes will be capable of flying nonstop from the U.S. East Coast to many cities in Western Europe. Norwegian says using the smaller single-aisle 737 MAX for international routes -- instead of a more traditional twin-aisle "widebody" jet -- will allow it to keep costs low and offer fares of less than $100 each way for flights between the USA and Europe -- even on non-hub routes between smaller cities.

With the 737 MAX, Sande said “you only need to fill 189 seats, much smaller than what you’d have to sell on traditional (widebody) aircraft” that are typically used for overseas routes. Sande said the new Northeast service “wouldn’t be possible if we didn’t get the 737” to fly the routes.

To accommodate its 737-fueled expansion, Norwegian is opening two bases for 737 MAX pilots in Newburgh and Providence. Norwegian is hoping to develop those as secondary airports for the New York and Boston areas, respectively. Each are about 70 miles away from the downtown areas.

However, Sande cautioned that Norwegian doesn’t think all of its fliers bound to those three Northeast airports will necessarily be headed to New York or Boston. With the large populations living around Newburgh and Providence in the dense Northeast corridor, he predicted the airports will draw people from around the region for Norwegian’s new flights.

Sande added more routes are likely if the carrier’s 737 service from the Northeast proves popular.

“This is just the start,” he said. “We have over 200 aircraft on order, so we’ll be looking for these kind of routes with the MAX.”

He suggested “the next step may be increasing frequencies” on the just-announced routes, though he concluded by noting the MAX “could fly from Providence to just about every city in Western Europe."

Norwegian's new 737 routes for the U.S. come after it received Department of Transportation approval in December for a long-haul subsidiary the company is setting up in Ireland.

Norwegian had already been flying to the United States, but the European low-cost carrier had sought approval to begin flights here under the Norwegian Air International subsidiary it has set up in Ireland, where the unit can take advantage of European Union regulations and labor laws.

Airline labor groups and some U.S. carriers and lawmakers fought the approval of the Irish subsidiary, calling it a "flag of convenience" scheme by Norwegian. But, after a lengthy  review, the DOT approved the application.

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“This case is among the most novel and complex ever undertaken by the department,” Jenny Rosenberg, acting assistant secretary for international affairs, wrote in the nine-page decision in December. “Regardless of our appreciation of the public policy arguments raised by opponents, we have been advised that the law and our bilateral obligations leave us no avenue to reject this application.”

Norwegian had already been providing 40 U.S. routes under its Norwegian-based parent company’s license while it awaited U.S. approval of the Irish license. The company said the U.S. approval of the Norwegian Air International subsidiary would pave thThe way for it to give travelers more competition for lower fares while hiring hundreds more U.S. crew members.

"Now we're doing exactly what we said we would," Sande said as Norwegian revealed its new routes from the Northeast. "We're looking forward to hiring a lot of American workers."

Scroll down for a complete run down of the 10 new routes announced by Norwegian.:

Providence

Edinburgh: Begins June 16; four weekly flights in the summer, two during the winter.

Belfast: Begins July 1; Two weekly flights during summer. No wintertime service.

Cork: Begins July 1: Three weekly flights during summer, two during winter.

Dublin: Begins July 2: Five weekly flights during summer, three during winter.

Shannon: Begins July 3: Two weekly flights year-round.

Newburgh/Stewart International, N.Y.

Edinburgh: Begins June 15: One daily round-trip flight, year-round.

Belfast: Begins July 1; Three  weekly flights during summer, two during winter.

Dublin: Begins July 1: Daily service during summer, three weekly flights during winter.

Shannon: Begins July 2: Two weekly flights year-round.

Hartford/Bradley

Edinburgh: Begins June 17: Three  weekly flights during summer, two during winter.

TWITTER: You can follow Today in the Sky editor Ben Mutzabaugh at twitter.com/TodayInTheSky

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