Ireland and Scotland get new U.S. Routes
02/28/2017
Introduction
Just when you thought that you had heard all the information you could imagine about transatlantic flights, yet another startling piece of news arrives.
Now the Transatlantic Market gets more shockwaves, as Norwegian launches ten new routes. Ireland and Scotland are the big winners on that side of the pond. New England and Greater New York area travelers on the other.
Everyone has read about the rumpus that Norwegian is causing especially with the U.S. Big Three legacy airlines (United, American, and Delta), who only a few days ago were in the White House complaining to Donald Trump about how unfair aviation is.Now they must be hitting the roof, as a fantastic ten new routes are announced. For example, with the launch of Norwegian's Edinburgh service the share of the Scottish market for the 'Big Three' falls from 89% to 71%. The Irish market was already fairly crowded so the new moves do not make such great inroads into market shares, but time will tell.But the Irish destinations are expanded sharply.
Cork, Shannon, Edinburgh, Belfast International and Dublin will now have 38 services a week.
Interestingly the U.S. destinations are not ones we are used to seeing, as they follow an established pattern among Low-Cost Carriers.That pattern is of finding airports in proximity to the destination that have low landing fees. For this purpose, Stewart Airport will be used for New York (it is about 90 minutes away) and Providence for Boston (Providence is 90 minutes from Boston).The latter is also close to perennially popular New England spots; such as Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard and Cape Cod.Also, Hartford, Connecticut which just launched a Dublin service with Aer Lingus, now gets three times a week flight to Edinburgh. Cork gets a U.S. route for the first time. All routes will be served by 189 seat 737 Max aircraft. Existing airlines operating flights into New York will have the most to lose.
Further U.K. Destinations
The question now remains whether Birmingham and Manchester (also used by Norwegian) will be joining the transatlantic list.Belfast International Airport will be particularly pleased as, only as recently as January, it lost its only U.S. connection with the termination of United's New York Newark route.
The changes now make Dublin fifth on the list (for numbers of flights to the U.S.), with 50 connections at peak periods. London Heathrow, Paris, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam are the top four.The changes come after Norwegian's Irish subsidiary was given a flying permit by the U.S. Federal Aviation Authority.