Norwegian to begin cheap flights to Los Angeles this March

Norwegian, the third largest low-cost carrier in Europe, is all set to begin cheap flights to Los Angeles in March this year.  Norwegian is at the same time planning to move out of its base in Norway and instead set up a permanent subsidiary in Ireland. The airline is seeking to change its business model altogether before it starts flying to Los Angeles as well as to other U.S. cities like Orlando and Oakland. Norwegian’s decision to shift its base to Ireland is prompted by the belief that the labor laws would be less stringent and it will have more air traffic rights than what it presently enjoys in Norway.

However, leading U.S. carriers like Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, United Airlines and US Airways are seeing Norwegian’s decision as a strong challenge and vigorously opposing the new competition posed by the airline on Los Angeles-European routes. The U.S. carriers have joined hands to oppose Norwegian’s plan to shift base to Ireland and have voiced their concerns requesting the U.S. Department of Transportation to effectively block the Irish plan of Norwegian and force it to be based in Norway itself.

The U.S. carriers are seeing the move of Norwegian as a severe challenge in more ways than the present one. They consider that Norwegian’s plans to begin new flights from Los Angeles to Oslo, London and Stockholm is a major threat as it will cut into their earnings. The fact that Norwegian will be offering Cheap Airfares on these routes scheduled to be operational later this year would also force a rethink among these established U.S. carriers that are offering airfares that are certainly priced high than what is to be offered by Norwegian.