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Norwegian to increase London Gatwick flights and add more Premium seats

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Norwegian has big plans to expand out of Gatwick, and the airport will be the first to experience an expanded Premium cabin.

In a clear bid to attract business travellers, Norwegian is pulling back from an exclusive focus on opening new routes and will instead focus on increasing frequencies to existing cities.

Gatwick will be the home for the 10 brand new 787 Dreamliners which will enter the Norwegian fleet this year.  These feature 56 seats in the Premium cabin which is 21 more than the current planes.

Norwegian premium

The medium term plan is to increase Gatwick – Los Angeles to 11 flights per week, Gatwick – Fort Lauderdale to 4 flights per week and eventually launch a third daily flight on the Gatwick – New York route.

It has also announced plans to fly from London to South America and Asia, with possible flights to Tokyo, Shanghai and Beijing, once the airline receives access to the Siberian flight corridor.

In 2019 eight brand-new single-aisle Airbus A321neo LR will be added to Norwegian’s fleet with plans to serve the US East Coast and Midwest.  These are the same aircraft that Aer Lingus is buying to also use on the US East Coast.

The press release about the changes is here.

My review of Norwegian’s Premium seat is here.

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Comments (55)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Richard says:
    17 Feb17 February 04:20

    As premium economy becomes more And more of a thing for the reimbursement departments of businesses Norwegian have excellent potential. And the ability to get an exit row if booking reasonably far out for leisure is rather nice too.

    • Tom says:
      17 Feb17 February 08:21

      I am trying to book some Norwegian long haul flights for March and the Premium cabin is sold out. I can see why they are adding more of these seats. They are exceptional value compared to their rivals.

  • Mike G says:
    17 Feb17 February 06:16

    A few weeks back I suffered the poor No 1 Lounge at Gatwick south before a flight in Norwegian premium.

    Last week we avoided it and went to Grain Store Cafe where my family and I were greeted politely, treated like valued guests, had four wonderful meals with drinks, and “paid” for it all with £60 worth of Priority Pass credit from Amex plat. Much better!

    • travelbear38 says:
      17 Feb17 February 10:52

      We went to Gordon Ramsey’s plane food in T5 instead of the priority pass lounge.20 people in front of us to get into the lounge for cheap bacon, sausage and crap coffee. Returning to the lounge in the evening on a return flight the offerings were the cheapest pasta dish that could be made. Really not worth it.

      • Rob says:
        17 Feb17 February 12:30

        I am intrigued to see if Plaza Premium intend to permanently keep PPass out of T5 ….

        • roberto says:
          17 Feb17 February 14:17

          Was very quiet there this week. It must be effecting the bottom line.

          • Rob says:
            17 Feb17 February 15:16

            Priority Pass actually owns 50% of the Aspire lounge in T5. I suppose it is possible that they are purposely blocking Plaza Premium – but given the permanent queues at Aspire that would appear self-defeating.

  • Ian W says:
    17 Feb17 February 06:20

    It’s worth knowing also that premium security is free for kids. So for a family of four with just the one silver/gold card, you can book two free kid passes and you all can get through for free.

  • Mike G says:
    17 Feb17 February 06:21

    My wife has a trip to Tokyo in February 2019. Is there much likelihood that Norwegian would be operating that route by then? I had an
    excellent experience recently flying their premium cabin to Oakland.

    • Rob says:
      17 Feb17 February 08:56

      They are reliant on the Russian Government to give them overfly rights so who knows …..!

    • Lady London says:
      17 Feb17 February 11:57

      Is the “Siberian corridor” where that innocent passenger plane got shot down as part of an armed conflict on the ground… was that 2 or 3 years ago? Does using it means planes don’t have to re-route over the Pole?

      • Alex Sm says:
        17 Feb17 February 13:43

        If you think that Ukraine is part of Siberia, then yes, you are absolutely right, are you not?

  • Pawel Siewko says:
    17 Feb17 February 07:33

    I login and sorry don’t see 1 Pound offer, only normal 5 GBP/Person

    • Rob says:
      17 Feb17 February 08:54

      I’ll see if I can find a way of forcing the link.

      • Cuchlainn says:
        17 Feb17 February 22:16

        Working now Rob – purchased, many thanks.

        Not sure if it deflected I was using Android from Arrecife originally, whereas now back in UK on ever dependable iPad !!

    • Cuchlainn says:
      17 Feb17 February 10:50

      Premium security still £5 per pax unfortunately via link.

    • Lady London says:
      17 Feb17 February 11:59

      Wondering if you have to be signed up into MyGatwick for the link to work?

  • Tom says:
    17 Feb17 February 08:19

    A million miles better. Spacious, edible food and a great rewards programme. The seat has a great recline. I rate their premium cabin as between premium economy and club world.

  • Kevin says:
    17 Feb17 February 08:27

    The Norwegian Premium seat is miles better than BA Economy. I also thought I had more space than BA or Virgin Premium Economy. The food was okay, IFE wasn’t great.

    • Rob says:
      17 Feb17 February 08:53

      Premium is substantially better than BA or Virgin PE. You even get lounge access.

  • pixielott46 says:
    17 Feb17 February 09:27

    Nobody ever mentions a big perk of Norwegian flights, which is free wifi that works pretty well for the entire duration of the flight.

    How many years have BA been struggling to come up with a wifi solution?

    • Quark999 says:
      17 Feb17 February 09:44

      People consistently mix up the short haul and long haul on this, so IMHO it gets mentioned far too OFTEN. AFAIK there is still no Wi-fi on the long hauls, although it is supposedly coming. A bit like BA right now really. As this was about the long haul flights I was glad NOT to read about the “free Wi-fi” that doesn’t exist.

      • Graham Walsh says:
        17 Feb17 February 15:13

        Correct no wifi on the long haul routes, only on short routes. G/F was out Premium and back economy with Norwegian. She really liked the outbound flight, no so much the in bound, was to/from Fort Lauderdale. They also operate a bidding system like Virgin to upgrade from Economy to PE. She had paid for a 2nd bag and when won the bid to upgrade, they deducted the cost of the 2nd bag, as it’s included in PE.

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