Norwegian UK (London Gatwick) would be eager to grow at London Gatwick but is blocked by the lack of availability of appropriate slots, Norwegian Group CEO Bjorn Kjos has been reported as saying by Air Transport World.
The Norwegian LCC plans to base twelve B787-9s out of London Gatwick in Summer 2018 as it prepares to transfer all long-haul services from this gateway, currently still operated mostly by the main unit Norwegian (Oslo Gardermoen), to its UK-based subsidiary from March 25, 2018. This will lead to a doubling of capacity in comparison to Summer 2017. However, Kjos sees a potential for further growth.
"We could easily sell New York JFK 4x daily [double current frequency] if we could get access to the slots. There is a huge demand. The problem we have is congested airports. There are not many slots up for sale; we have picked up the ones that were out there," Kjos has said.
Norwegian has acquired an unspecified number of slots from Small Planet Airlines to boost its presence at Gatwick but had given up on the ex-Monarch Airlines (1968) (London Luton) slots earlier as it would not be able to use them immediately and could lose them due to dormancy.
Another factor limiting the carrier's long-haul growth is the lack of Siberian overflight rights.
Despite these limitations, Kjos has underlined that Norwegian remains committed to Gatwick and does not plan to diversify its London operations into a second airport, such as London Stansted.
Following the recent launch of flights to Buenos Aires Ministro Pistarini, Norwegian and Norwegian Air International currently operate a total of 256 weekly departures out of Gatwick, which puts the group as the third-largest carrier at the gateway behind easyJet and British Airways. According to the ch-aviation capacity module, in Summer 2018 Norwegian UK plans to operate 64 weekly long-haul departures out of Gatwick to a total of 12 destinations. In terms of intercontinental services, this still puts the airline behind British Airways, but firmly ahead of Virgin Atlantic.
