2013-03-20 — /travelprnews.com/ — From November this year, non-stop flights will be available from Copenhagen Airport to Florida. Norwegian, Scandinavia’s second largest airline, announced plans today for the airline’s first long-haul service out of Copenhagen. The new route is to Fort Lauderdale, less than an hour’s drive north of Miami.
The first Norwegian flight will take off on 29 November 2013, leaving Copenhagen at 3.45 p.m. and arriving at Fort Lauderdale at 7.30 p.m. local time. Initially, the route will be served by flights on Mondays and Fridays, increasing to three weekly flights as early as February 2014.
“I am very pleased to announce that we now open for bookings on our first long-haul service out of Denmark. Copenhagen is an important base for us, and we look forward to welcoming passengers out of Copenhagen on our long-haul flights,” said Norwegian’s CEO, Bjørn Kjos.
“With the launch of our new service to Fort Lauderdale, we will have long-haul services out of all the Scandinavian capitals. This is a milestone in Norwegian’s history,” he added.
And Bjørn Kjos guarantees that fares on the new overseas service out of Copenhagen will be very reasonable: the fare for a one-way ticket will start at DKK 1,499.
Focusing on long-haul services
“The market for long-haul air services has much too long been characterised by high fares with little flexibility. The very warm reception that Norwegian’s services to New York and Bangkok out of Oslo and Stockholm have seen shows that there is a demand for attractively priced tickets to the USA and Asia,” said Norwegian’s CEO.
According to Kjos, the reason why Norwegian can offer lower fares than its competitors is not least the new Boeing Dreamliner’s excellent fuel economy.
As Boeing delivers the Dreamliners in the course of the coming year, Norwegian will be launching additional long-haul services, also out of Copenhagen.
“We will be continuing our focus on long-haul flights,” said Kjos.
CPH: Excellent news
Often dubbed the Venice of North America, Fort Lauderdale is also home to one of the world’s biggest cruise ship terminals.
“A direct service to Copenhagen may open the door for even more cruise passengers to Denmark, as cruises out of Copenhagen have become increasingly popular with Americans,” said Carsten Nørland, VP, Sales and Marketing for Copenhagen Airport.
“Although Copenhagen Airport saw an increase by more than 10% in long-haul services last year, there is certainly capacity for the new service. The southern part of the USA especially has been under-served by flights from the Nordic region, so the passenger potential is great. For this reason, it’s excellent news that Norwegian has chosen Fort Lauderdale as the destination of their first long-haul service out of Copenhagen,” said Nørland.
Last year, 60,000 passengers travelled from Copenhagen to Miami on indirect itineraries. They can now fly non-stop. The flying time on Norwegian will be 10 hours and 45 minutes westbound, and 9 hours and 15 minutes eastbound.