Norwegian plans cheap flights to South Africa and South America

Low-cost airline Norwegian plans to offer cheap flights to Asia, South Africa and South America after being granted a UK Operating License.

The new 'Norwegian UK' subsidiary will launch and the UK license will help the airline access bilateral traffic rights, opening the door to new UK routes to a series of potential new markets around the world.

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Norwegian is currently the third-largest airline at Gatwick and also operates from Manchester, Birmingham, and Edinburgh. Over the last 12 months, the carrier has flown 3.9 million UK passengers to 34 global destinations, including the UK's only low-cost direct flights to America.

With new aircraft on order that will more than quadruple its current long-haul fleet, it is planning further expansion in key markets, particularly the UK.

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Norwegian plans to begin operating under the new license as 'Norwegian UK' in the first quarter of 2016 and will be located at Gatwick where the airline already has ten aircraft and more than 400 crew and pilots based.

Its new routes and UK expansion plans are expected to help create several hundred jobs within Norwegian in the coming years, along with many more in the wider travel and tourism industry.

Earlier this month, Norwegian launched its fifth transatlantic route from Gatwick with the UK's only direct route to Puerto Rico offering passengers low-cost travel to the Caribbean for the first time. Two new routes were also added at Birmingham Airport making it the fastest growing airline at Birmingham in 2015.

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