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Norwegian Air UK Ltd was a British airline and a fully integrated subsidiary of low-cost airline Norwegian Air Shuttle, using its corporate identity. The airline operated Boeing 787-9 aircraft on scheduled services between Europe, Asia, and the Americas from its base at Gatwick Airport, south of London. In January 2021, Norwegian Air Shuttle announced it would cease all long-haul operations, which included those of Norwegian Air UK.

History

In November 2015, the British civil aviation authorities issued Norwegian Air UK its air operator's certificate (AOC), and a single Boeing 737-800 was subsequently registered to the airline. The following month, the airline applied to the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) for an exemption and a permit to begin flights to the country. In June 2016 however, the USDOT denied Norwegian Air UK's request for an exemption, which would have allowed the airline to start flights to the United States while its foreign air-carrier permit (FACP) remained under review. Meanwhile, the department placed the airline's application for a FACP on hold. The USDOT stated that it needed more time to review issues raised by various labour unions, such as the claim that Norwegian Air UK would violate labour laws by employing flight crew based in East Asia. In July 2017, the USDOT approved Norwegian Air UK's application for its foreign air-carrier permit, citing the airline's commitments to hire crew based in the United States and the European Union.

The airline's first services under its own AOC and IATA/ICAO codes (DI and NRS) were from Oslo Gardermoen to Barcelona, Málaga and Nice in September 2017, prior to its regularly scheduled services from London Gatwick to Singapore later that month and from London Gatwick to Buenos Aires Ezeiza in February 2018. From 25 March 2018, the airline began operating the rest of the Norwegian Group's long haul routes from London Gatwick to the United States, which were previously operated by Norwegian Long Haul on behalf of parent company Norwegian Air Shuttle. On 25 June 2018, the airline announced that flights from London Gatwick to Austin and Seattle that were originally scheduled as year-round services were to be reduced to summer seasonal services, but a new service was also announced: to Tampa from London Gatwick, as the first new US destination from London following the transfer of Norwegian Long Haul's US services. Further changes and additions to the airline's operations were announced on 27 November 2018, consisting of the relocation of its services at Fort Lauderdale and Oakland airports to Miami and San Francisco airports respectively, and the launch date of a new service to Rio de Janeiro from London, with the changes occurring on 31 March 2019. The airline's new service to Rio de Janeiro replaced its existing service to Singapore, which ended during January 2019. Reductions to the airline's route network continued, when the airline in July 2019 announced further cuts to three of its destinations in the US, with its year-round services to Chicago O'Hare and Denver reduced to summer seasonal, and that its winter seasonal service to Las Vegas would not resume.

In March 2020, the airline's fleet, along with much of the fleet of its associated parent and sister companies, was placed into storage due to the reduction in travel demand as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on aviation. In July 2020, a limited number of the airline's London Gatwick-based operations were scheduled to resume starting in December 2020 in anticipation of the pandemic's impacts subsiding, but by October 2020 this was pushed to March 2021. The planned resumption of operations from its London Gatwick base consisted of flights to Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, New York JFK, Orlando, and San Francisco in March 2021, and from London to Austin in May 2021. However, in January 2021 Norwegian announced that its long-haul operations, which included those of Norwegian Air UK, would not be resuming, and that the UK subsidiary would be put into liquidation. The airline's AOC was revoked voluntarily on 1 November 2021.

Destinations

Norwegian Air UK was serving or had formerly served the following destinations prior to the initial suspension of its operations in March 2020 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on aviation. Limited operations were to gradually resume starting in March 2021, however Norwegian Group's long-haul operations were announced in January 2021 to be discontinued.

Fleet

As of January 2021 (at the time of closure), Norwegian Air UK's fleet comprised the following aircraft, following its initial storage on 21 March 2020:

Historical fleet

Norwegian Air UK had previously operated the following aircraft:

Fleet development

When Norwegian Air UK was founded in 2015, a Boeing 737-800 was transferred to the airline from its Irish sister subsidiary Norwegian Air International, the aircraft of which operated flights on behalf of the Irish subsidiary until it was transferred to Norwegian Air Shuttle in March 2019.

Between 2017 and 2018, some of the Boeing 787-9s originally ordered for Norwegian Long Haul were instead initially delivered to Norwegian Air UK, with 11 such aircraft either subsequently transferred back to Norwegian Long Haul or to Norwegian Air Sweden between 2017 and 2019. A total of 13 787-9s delivered to Norwegian Air UK starting in February 2018 were retained by the airline for its own operations, until the initial suspension of its operations in March 2020 and eventual closure in January 2021. One additional 787-9 was produced and intended for the British subsidiary, but was never delivered by the time Norwegian Group's long-haul flights were terminated.

Cabin classes and services

Like its sister subsidiaries under parent Norwegian Air Shuttle, Norwegian Air UK operated its Boeing 787s with two classes of service, consisting of Premium Economy and Economy classes. Though compared to many of the other 787-9s operated between its sister subsidiaries, the British subsidiary's aircraft starting in 2018 were configured with additional Premium seats and fewer Economy seats.

See also

• List of defunct airlines of the United Kingdom

References

1. "Norwegian begins flights between London Gatwick and Singapore – anna.aero joins carrier to celebrate its first Asian route from the UK". anna.aero. PPS Publications. 29 September 2017. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
2. ^ Philip, Siddharth Vikram (14 January 2021). "Norwegian Air Gives Up Long-Haul Flying in Plan to Exit Insolvency". Bloomberg. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
3. "Norwegian UK secures AOC, eyes 1Q2016 launch". ch-aviation. 13 November 2015. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
4. ^ "LN-NGM Norwegian Air Shuttle AOC Boeing 737-8JP(WL)". Planespotters.net. 24 April 2021. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
5. Carey, Bill (1 July 2016). "U.S. DOT Denies Norwegian Air UK Foreign Carrier Exemption". AINonline. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
6. "DOT denies Norwegian UK exemption authority; prolongs FACP". ch-aviation. 4 July 2016. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
7. "U.S. Department of Transportation Issues Order Proposing to Grant Authority to Norwegian Air UK". Transportation.gov. 17 July 2017. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
8. Liu, Jim (10 May 2017). "Norwegian Air UK Sep 2017 intra-Europe operations". Routesonline. UBM (UK) Ltd. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
9. ^ Liu, Jim (20 April 2017). "Norwegian Air UK launches Singapore service from Sep 2017". Routesonline. UBM (UK) Ltd. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
10. ^ Liu, Jim (22 June 2017). "Norwegian adds London – Buenos Aires service from Feb 2018". Routesonline. UBM (UK) Ltd. Retrieved 22 June 2017.
11. ^ Liu, Jim (27 February 2018). "Norwegian moves forward Gatwick Long-Haul flight code switch to S18". Routesonline. UBM (UK) Ltd. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
12. ^ McIntosh, Andrew (25 June 2018). "Norwegian Air Shuttle cuts back in Seattle and other cities; ramps up East Coast flights". Puget Sound Business Journal. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
13. ^ Danielson, Richard (25 June 2018). "Norwegian Airlines offers direct flights from Tampa to London-Gatwick". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
14. ^ "Norwegian announces new direct flights to Miami and San Francisco as part of new summer 2019 long-haul programme" (Press release). Norwegian Air Shuttle. 28 November 2018. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
15. ^ "Norwegian launches the UK's cheapest flights to Brazil with a new route to Rio from £240" (Press release). Norwegian Air Shuttle. 27 November 2018. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
16. McWhirter, Alex (9 September 2018). "Norwegian to axe Singapore in favour of Rio de Janeiro". Business Traveller. Panacea Media Limited. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
17. ^ Liu, Jim (10 September 2018). "Norwegian ends London – Singapore link in Jan 2019". Routesonline. UBM (UK) Ltd.
18. ^ Noakes, Gary (1 July 2019). "Norwegian axes another US route". TTG Travel Industry News. TTG Media Limited. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
19. ^ Silk, Robert (8 July 2019). "Norwegian Air makes several year-round routes seasonal". Travel Weekly. Northstar Travel Media, LLC. Retrieved 11 July 2019.
20. Nikel, David (17 July 2020). "7 Norwegian Long-Haul Routes To Restart From December 2020". Forbes. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
21. ^ McGinnis, Chris (31 October 2020). "Routes: Southwest expansion, Norwegian to SFO + Tampa, Mexico, JetBlue, SJC, SLC, more". SFGate. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
22. "Norwegian to abandon long-haul as it fights for survival". The Financial Times. 14 January 2021. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
23. Andrews, James (14 January 2021). "Norwegian air scraps long-haul network seeing 1,100 jobs lost at Gatwick". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
24. "GINFO Search Results Summary". Civil Aviation Authority. 2 October 2017. Retrieved 4 October 2017. Aircraft operated by AOC holder Norwegian Air UK
25. ^ "Norwegian Air UK Fleet Details and History". Planespotters.net. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
26. "G-CLJN Norwegian Air UK Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner". Planespotters.net. 2 September 2020. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
27. Otley, Tom (13 February 2018). "Norwegian expands and targets business travellers". Business Traveller. Panacea Media Limited. Retrieved 26 April 2021. Norwegian has 10 new Dreamliners entering the fleet in 2018 featuring the new, expanded 56-seat Premium cabin, which will replace the current Gatwick-based Dreamliner fleet

External links

Media related to Norwegian Air UK at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website

• United Kingdom
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• Aviation

• Defunct airlines of the United Kingdom
• Airlines established in 2015
• Airlines disestablished in 2021
• British companies established in 2015
• Norwegian Air Shuttle
• British subsidiaries of foreign companies
• 2015 establishments in England
• 2021 disestablishments in England
• Defunct European low-cost airlines
• Defunct low-cost airlines
• Companies based in Crawley