New US-Caribbean service from Norwegian
 

The US/EU(+Iceland/Norway) Open Skies treaty is getting a workout these days. Norwegian announced today that it will use the 7th Freedom rights included in that treaty to launch service between the US and France. With the catch being that "France" in this case is Guadelope and Martinique, two islands in the Caribbean. Service from BOS/JFK/BWI will be 2-3x daily for each route for the winter season.

http://blog.wandr.me/2015/06/norwegi...ibbean-routes/
http://blog.wandr.me/wp-content/uplo...il-300x300.jpg

http://media.norwegian.com/us/#/pres...ibbean-1184050

n.b. Link above goes to my blog. You've been warned.

Excellent news. I love this airline, even though I'm not sure if I'll ever be in position to take one of their flights. :cool:

This is terrific. I've been hoping to visit those very islands this winter, but getting there was kind of difficult.

Always good to see some new options for things, thanks for the info.

Flights already loaded.

Richard Anderson has got to be pulling his hair out now, oh wait....

There's no "catch". Martinique and Guadaloupe are legally part of France, they are called Overseas Departments - Départaments d'Outre Mer. Its the same as Hawaii being one of the 50 states.

New US-Caribbean service from Norwegian
 

I dare them to start service USA-Tahiti :D.

So is Puerto Rico, except when it is not.

Would be legal based on the 7th Freedom rules, though less likely to happen until they get more 787s in house. HNL-PPT is probably at the edge of the range, but it might be possible.

no, Puerto Rico is an unincorportated territory, not part of the 50 US states, whereas Guadaloupe and Martinique are legislatively Departments of France, the same as a US state. Puerto Rico is the same as the Colectivités of France, which are unincorporated territories.

Hope they add JFK-NOU and PPT next week.

That'd be nice, but I don't think they'd have the right aircraft for it

I thought the French Region was more akin to a U.S. State than the Departments. (Of course, those two are Regions as well...so yes, agree the Hawaii analogy is closer than the Puerto Rico analogy.)

So which one of these can they fly to?

BDA, SXM, AUA, EIS, PLS, GCM, BON, CUR

Good luck to them! Competition is great.

I wondered if Norwegian might also like to fly to St. Pierre and Miquelon, but I see that they are a collectivité territoriale, not an overseas department.