Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA (« Norwegian ») inaugurated today in Barcelona Airport its corporate offices for Southern Europe, in an event attended by the airline’s founder and CEO, Bjørn Kjos; the Norwegian ambassador to Spain, Johan Vibe; Catalonia’s minister for Planning and Sustainability, Santi Vila; Barcelona’s deputy mayor Sònia Recasens; the chairman of Barcelona’s Chamber of Commerce, Miquel Valls; Catalonia’s secretary for Transport and Territory andh chairman of the Barcelona Route Development Committee (CDRA), Ricard Font and Barcelona Airport director, Sonia Corrochano.
The new premises, close to 600 square meters, are located in the old AENA’s Barcelona Plan headquarter, from where the airport expansion was coordinated between 2000 and 2009.
Norwegian’s corporate office in Barcelona is not a territorial office, but will take up some of the headquarters duties, such as online and offline Marketing, Sales, Ancillary Revenue or the coordination of a number of airports.
The office will be fully operative during the first week of february, and 35 people will work there —50 people in time. It is worth mentioning that Norwegian operating base at Barcelona Airports’s Terminal 2 employs over one hundred people, a figure which is set to increase in 2015 with the expansion that will take place during June.
That way, corporate office and operating base will employ over 150 people in Barcelona during this year.
Speaking today, Norwegian’s founder and CEO Bjørn Kjos, said that the new office in Barcelona « is the tangible proof of Norwegian’s commitment and rooting in the city and represents an excellent springboard for new expansion projects, in Europe and beyond ».
36% GROWTH IN BARCELONA DURING 2014
Norwegian carried a total of 828.218 passengers in Barcelona during 2014 —a 36% increase on a year earlier. That places Norwegian seventh in the airport passenger ranking list, having started operations in Barcelona as recently as in 2008. From that moment on, over 2.5m passengers have flown Norwegian in and out of Barcelona.
In wider Spain, Norwegian carried 4.69m passengers in 2014. Norwegian flies to 14 airports in AENA’s network, and six of its 14 operating bases in Europe are in Spain –on top of Barcelona, Madrid, Malaga, Alicante, Gran Canaria and Tenerife South.
Worldwide, Norwegian carried 24m passengers in 2014, no only in Europe but also in Asia and the United States, two of the company’s growth markets.
Norwegian’s operating base in Barcelona started in April 2014, with three aircraft. On June 2015, a fourth aircraft (a Boeing 737 with 186 seats) will be based there, which will allow to launch five new routes this summer: Birmigham in the United Kidgom, Dubrovnik in Croatia, Billund in Denmark, as well as Stavanger and Trondheim in Norway.
Norwegian’s total amount of routes will thus grow from 11 in summer 2014 to 15 in summer 2015 —to eight European countries. The number of weekly flights will therefore grow up to 158 per week, with a total production of up to 29.388 weekly seats.
After the recent success of its long-haul operating base in London-Gatwick airport, Norwegian is considering the launch of transoceanic routes out of Barcelona by late 2016.
LONG-HAUL FROM BARCELONA BY LATE 2016
Barcelona Airport reached 37.56m passengers in 2014. That represents a growth of 6.7% on a year earlier.
Intercontinental traffic growth was higher, at 10.9%, thus showing Barcelona intercontinental traffic potential and the way forward in achieving new long-haul routes from the airport.
Norwegian Air Shuttle is the first European low-cost carrier that has started long-haul operations. According to Bjørn Kjos, Norwegian Air Shuttle has plans to continue this type
of operations and has confirmed that, expecting a positive evolution of the market, it could start new long-haul flights from Barcelona as of the end of 2016, that could connect Barcelona with markets in the Americas.
During the event, all the insitutions represented highighted the importance of Norwegian Air Shuttle commitment so that Barcelona Airport becomes better connected on the international stage. The company offers connectivity between its flights, which would reinforce the airport’s own connectivity and would favour the arrival of tourists and business passengers alike.
ABOUT NORWEGIAN
Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA, commercially branded « Norwegian », is a low-cost airline listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. Norwegian is the second largest airline in Scandinavia and third largest low cost carrier in Europe.
The company reported its highest ever passenger figures in a single year with almost 24 million passengers in 2014. Norwegian has a route portfolio that stretches across Europe into North Africa and the Middle East, as well as long-haul flights to the US and Southeast Asia.
The company has a total of 424 routes to 130 destinations and employs approximately 4,500 people in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, UK, Spain and Thailand. The company has 258 undelivered aircraft on firm order. Norwegian was founded in 1993 and its headquarter is in Fornebu, Norway. Norwegian offers better leg room than most competitors, in-flight WiFi on short haul, world-class punctuality and a fleet of 96 aircraft with an average age of only 4.8 years.
In 2013 and 2014, Norwegian was voted Europe’s best low-cost carrier of the year by the renowned SkyTrax World Airline Awards. In 2014, Norwegian also won three prizes at the
prestigious Passenger Choice Awards for Best Airline in Europe, Best Inflight Connectivity & Communications and Best Single Achievement in Passenger Experience for its moving map on the 787 Dreamliners. In addition, Norwegian was awarded Europe’s best low-cost airline by AirlineRatings.com for the second year running.
Source and photo: flytobarcelona.com
