Norwegian Now Flies More Passengers Between Europe and NYC Than British Airways
Jackie Reddy October 09, 2018
New figures from the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey indicate that Norwegian has the edge over BA in terms of passenger traffic on trans-Atlantic services operating into and out of NYC. Norwegian was bullish in its comments while BA reconfirmed its commitments to the trans-Atlantic market.
According to data released by the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, low-cost carrier Norwegian has edged out British Airways (BA) in terms of overall passenger figures to become the largest non-American carrier of trans-Atlantic services operating into and out of NYC.
Reuters reports that, in the year ending July 2018, Norwegian handled a total of 1.67 million passengers moving into or out of airports within the NYC metropolitan area. These facilities include John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), LaGuardia Airport (LGA) and Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR).
During the same period, data from the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey showed that BA handled 1.63 million passengers.
Norwegian’s success comes just after an attempt by BA to purchase the low-cost carrier earlier this year. In recent years it – along with other low-cost competitors such as Wow Air – have made stiff competition for the conventional incumbents within the trans-Atlantic market.
Commenting on this shake-up of the trans-Atlantic flight market, a spokesperson for Norwegian was bullish in outlook, saying, “Fares have been too high for too long as transatlantic routes have been long dominated by carriers with outdated legacies running on fumes.”
“Norwegian will continue to spread its wings to the Big Apple with a third-daily service between London and New York JFK from 28 October,” the spokesperson added.
Offering comments on behalf of the carrier, a spokesperson for BA said, “Our commitment to New York is as strong as ever. We fly up to 70 times a week from all three of our London airports, and we recently announced a $65 million (49.7 million pounds) investment on new lounges, improved food, seating and shops at JFK Terminal 7.”
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BA numbers may be lower because they probably do not count connecting passengers going to Africa, Indian subcontinent and far East Asia. Norwegian serves 3 SEAsian and only a handful of Middle East cities. The bottom line is that statisticians can mold the data to fit their needs. So, the headline may be correct for travellers between NYC and Europe, but more than likely a biased data set that excludes passengers travelling through to Africa, Middle East and Asia.
Even though Norgweigan may be in trouble, BA has long lived on its legacy which frankly is archaic! Their customer service is poor, in-flight service is ok but more akin to low cost at premium costs. If you can go cheaper why wouldn’t you in a newer aircraft (or seen to be) as that is after all what the public look at! It opens up for a wider audience!
Norwegian fly to more countries out of NY so it makes sense. Or are they just talking the UK? In other news, Iberia fly to Spain more than Alaska Airways.
This makes sense whatsoever. How can Norwegian, with 2 daily flights (14x weekly), transport more passengers than BA with 70 flights? This would mean average occupancy on BA around 20%.
A non-story really. BA only flies LON-NYC, DY flies from all over Europe and is proud to be adding a 3rd flight out of London...