Norwegian Air Shuttle in 2012-2015

[sdbelgium]

Once weekly from mid-May through July from Stockholm ARN to Alicante (Saturdays) and Malaga (Sundays). Ten times weekly from ARN to Gatwick.

[sn26567]

Norwegian Air Shuttle has opened a new base in Madrid, the airline’s sixth in Spain.

The Oslo-based budget carrier also has bases in Barcelona, Alicante, Malaga, Las Palmas and Tenerife, as well as in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the UK, the US and Thailand.

Two Boeing 737-800 aircraft will be based in Madrid and around 75 pilots and cabin crew have been recruited to the base.

[sn26567]

Having overcome all legal hurdles, Norwegian launches its first Boeing 787 Dreamliner flight from London Gatwick to Los Angeles today.

[sn26567]

Squawk Alert 7600 - NAX7015 - LGW-JFK (Lost Communications) - B788 - Norwegian LongHaul - EI-LNG - Track: http://www.rb24.com/NAX7015

[sn26567]

Norwegian long distance flights to/from Gatwick had a bad week - DY7096, DY7045 and DY7046 were all more than 40 hours late.

Source: FR24

[White Light]

Do we know the reasons for these delays ?

[sn26567]

Do we know the reasons for these delays ?

Mostly technical problems with the 787-8 fleet.

But apparently they are not limited to the flights ex-Gatwick. The transatlantic flights from Scandinavia have also suffered major delays.

Even worse: Norwegian utilises its fleet of B787s intensively and there is little back-up should things go wrong. The airline thus refuses to compensate passengers in the majority of cases because it says it is not liable for delays caused by technical issues.

A Swedish attorney claims that no fewer than 35,000 passengers have been affected by Norwegian's long-haul flight delays and is taking legal action on behalf of some of these passengers. Says he: "No airline we've had anything to do with has treated its passengers so badly as Norwegian. We actually have had better experience with the much-criticised Ryanair."

For more details, see: http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/1 ... ght-delays

[sn26567]

Norwegian long distance flights to/from Gatwick had a bad week - DY7096, DY7045 and DY7046 were all more than 40 hours late.

Is Norwegian offering flat beds in Economy? No, the picture shows 56 hours delayed passengers sleeping at the airport.


Courtesy FR24

[CTBke]

that's what I call great customer service .. At least they offered a place to sleep .. not ideal but hey it's a lcc after all ...

[sean1982]

You can hardly blame an airline for a manufacturer that is unable to build a plane that doesnt brake down every 5 min.

[sn26567]

You can hardly blame an airline for a manufacturer that is unable to build a plane that doesn't brake down every 5 min.

But the problems are also due to the fact that Norwegian utilises its fleet of B787s too intensively and that there is little back-up when things go wrong.

[sean1982]

No, Norwegian operates their aircraft exactly as they were marketed by Boeing. High utilisation, shorter ground turns. On top of that they have Boeing gold care for their maintenance, but it doesnt seem to help them.

[sn26567]

Norwegian Boeing 787 Dreamliner EI-LNF was hit by lightning on Arlanda 8 days ago. It is still not flying. What's going on?

[sean1982]

Due to the composite structure the 787 is sensitive to lighting strikes. I also believe the aircraft was connected to a GPU at the time of strike and it damaged quite a lot of electric components.

[sean1982]

Actually LNF has taken off to LAX 20 min ago but it looks like it's turning back to ARN :/

http://fr24.com/NAX7087

EDIT: probably gonna dump some fuel over the sea

[sean1982]

LNF redeparted ARN enroute to LAX

[sn26567]

Norwegian plans to increase London Gatwick - Los Angeles from 2 to 4 weekly; London Gatwick - New York JFK from 3 to 6 weekly from May 2015.

Source: Airline Route

[Homo Aeroportus]

Due to the composite structure the 787 is sensitive to lighting strikes. I also believe the aircraft was connected to a GPU at the time of strike and it damaged quite a lot of electric components.

Spot on Sean.
An airline flying the Dreamliner issued a few days ago a Ramp Service Advisory that calls for Gnd Pwr to be disconnected from the A/C if storms are detected in the area.

On the other hand this is odd.
If the lightning strikes the aircraft what is the discharge path?
OK, a mobile GPU doesn't help here (though the chance that it, as small as it is compared to the big bird nearby, takes the lightning bolt and drives it to the A/C is fairly reduced), but a fixed Gnd Pwr is normally earthed.

Airbus has recently worked on the subject further to two incidents with the A388. Its tail often protruding above the protection plane of the nearby terminal building, this bird already took twice a bolt at SIN.
The envisaged solution, currently still undergoing tests, is to use the same LPU (Lightning Protection Unit) as already in place inside the aircraft but here associated with the Gnd Pwr plug.
The device uses transient voltage suppression diodes to discharge the lightning spike through the grounding of the FEGP.

In any case, whether made of metal or "plastic", the safe attitude is to wait for someone else to touch the aircraft especially after a landing in stormy weather. This is a big f.. capacitor waiting to discharge.

Cheers,

H.A.

[sn26567]

Norwegian studying possible nonstop B787 flights to Hawaii

Norwegian Long Haul is reportedly studying the possible launch of direct Europe-Hawaii services. Pacific Business News says the Hawaiian Tourism Authority's (HTA) vice president of brand management, David Uchiyama, recently held talks with Oslo Lufthavn AS, the operator of Oslo Gardermoen Airport, over the proposed 10'915km-long route, which would operate direct using a trans-polar routing.

Should the route launch, it would be the first nonstop direct flight connecting Hawaii to Europe.

Source: ch-aviation

[airtrainer]

OSL-HNL non stop ? I'd say yes in their premium seats upfront, but in sardine class, ouch