norwegian

Airline to close long-haul hub in Catalan capital and dismiss 85% of staff in Spain

The company, Cruise Norwegian, offers passengers a 50% refund

Flight marks low-cost airline’s 5th direct route between Catalonia and US

Low-cost, long-distance carrier will also raise number of weekly flights to New York and Los Angeles

Low-cost airline transported 316,000 passengers in first year flying from Catalan capital to US destinations

In 2017 the airline flew around 2 million passengers to and from Barcelona airport

New routes and incorporation of new plane will bring total of travellers flying between both countries to 646,000

The Scandinavian airline is offering 255,000 seats during its first complete year of operations in Barcelona

Norwegian Airlines will double its workforce at Barcelona Airport, from the current 354 people to 755 in August 2017. The announcement was made this Monday by the Vice President of Human Resources of the company, Jan Dahm-Simonsen, during the press conference on the expansion of the airline offices at the installation in Prat de Llobregat. The 755 jobs Norwegian Airlines will have at the company headquarters in Southern Europe, in Barcelona, will include administrative, flight and ground assistance personnel. The expansion of staff responds partially to the rise in operations of the airline at Barcelona Airport, which will connect the city with Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Miami from next summer. 

Barcelona El Prat Airport will be connected to Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Miami through direct flights operated by low-cost airline Norwegian. Thus, Barcelona will host the only direct route to San Francisco in the whole of Spain. The new connections will start working in June 2017 and from August onwards Norwegian will offer four weekly flights to New York, three to Los Angeles and San Francisco and two to Miami. In total 325,000 places will be offered in the first year, most of them, 175,000, to California. According to Norwegian’s CEO, Bjorn Kjos, the company is set to also offer other new routes from the Catalan airport. 

The low-cost airline Norwegian Air Shuttle announced it may connect Barcelona to 5 United States cities by 2016: San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Miami and Orlando. The cheapest roundtrip tickets would be less than $300, stated the Scandinavian company’s Founder and CEO, Bjorn Kjos. The announcement was made on the day Norwegian unveiled its headquarters for Southern Europe, based at Barcelona El Prat Airport. The low-cost airline has transformed the Catalan capital’s main airport into one of its main operational bases worldwide. In 2014 alone, Norwegian increased by 36% the number of passengers it transported through the airport. Last year, Barcelona El Prat broke its passenger record with 37.5 million people. The Catalan Minister for Transport, Santi Vila, stressed that Norwegian’s plans contribute to transforming Barcelona El Prat into an intercontinental hub.

The number of passengers travelling through the main Catalan airport continues to grow year after year. Between January and November, 35.1 million people used this infrastructure, which represents a 6.8% increase from the same period in 2013. In the first 11 months of 2014, the number of passengers almost reached the global passenger figure for the whole of 2013: 35.2 million. In monthly terms, Barcelona El Prat posted a 3.8% passenger growth in November, reaching 2,473,568 passengers. EU passengers increased by 8.5%, while passengers from non-EU international flights dropped by 3.4% from November 2013 and those from domestic flights decreased by 0.2%. These figures coincide with a great increase of intercontinental passengers going through Madrid Barajas, which increased its global number of passengers by 9.3% in November, after years of drops. Besides, the airline Norwegian has announced the opening of 5 new routes from Barcelona.