Norwegian (Oslo Gardermoen) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Bjorn Kjos has confirmed the carrier's nascent South American unit, Norwegian Air Argentina (Buenos Aires Jorge Newbery), has submitted an application for route authorities to the Argentine government as it prepares to launch late rthis year.
A route determination board (Junta Asesora del Transporte Aéreo - JATA) in Argentina's civil aviation authority (Administración Nacional de Aviación Civil - ANAC) is due to hear a second round of applications for domestic and route authorities later this month. It follows from the first round which ended in March with 135 route authorities granted to each of Alas del Sur, American Jet (Argentina), and Andes Líneas Aéreas.
"We have delivered the papers and we have also applied for the routes," Kjos told Bloomberg news. "We’re looking to serve a lot of cities domestically, but it depends on the concessions."
According to the CEO, Norwegian plans to base ten B737s and an unspecified number of B787s out of Argentina for use in developing domestic flights as well as international services to London, Paris, Barcelona El Prat, Oslo Gardermoen, Copenhagen Kastrup, and Stockholm Arlanda.
Kjos said Norwegian chose Argentina for its South American debut given the market liberalization policies being pushed by Mauricio Macri's government, as well as the high growth potential that Argentina has.
In the same interview, he stated that Norwegian is also looking at a second base in Asia to complement its existing Bangkok Suvarnabhumi operations. Once established, that base will see services to London and Paris, Kjos added.
