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Norwegian Air plans massive growth in Argentina

Norwegian Air plans to develop two bases in Argentina and operate services to the country from across Europe following its launch of flights between London and Buenos Aires announced this week.

Low-cost long-haul leader Norwegian will offer flights from London Gatwick to the Argentinian capital from next February.

The city will be Norwegian’s 11th long-haul route from Gatwick and first to South America. Norwegian currently operates from Gatwick to nine US cities and to Singapore.

However, chief executive Bjorn Kjos revealed plans to fly from a second Argentine airport and operate up to 140 routes to, in and from the country.

Kos told Travel Weekly: “We applied for concessions on a lot of routes domestically and also internationally [in Argentina].

“We applied for 140 routes. We expect approval of the concessions in July or August. But we don’t know how many we will get.

“Our idea is to set up two bases, in Buenos Aires and Cordoba, to operate short haul and long-haul.

“We will increase our flights from Gatwick and add flights from elsewhere in Europe if we get concessions.”

He added: “We could go daily from Gatwick. We started with four, but we want to go daily.”

Kjos said the carrier expects strong Argentinian traffic into Europe but also “a lot more people [travelling] from Europe to Argentina”.

He said: “We are concentrating on Argentina, not planning to fly to other Latin American countries at the moment.

Norwegian is offering London-Buenos Aires fares from £299 one way. Services start on February 14, using a Boeing 787 like all Norwegian’s long-haul flights, and will operate four times a week.

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