Norwegian Air to start with 19 flights per week

Low-cost carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle is promising to boost traffic at smaller airports on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean when it starts service to and from Europe this summer at Stewart International Airport in Orange County and airports in Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Norwegian’s service at Stewart will start with a total of 19 flights per week to and from Dublin and Shannon, Ireland; Belfast, Northern Ireland; and Edinburgh, Scotland.

The other Northeast airports to be served by Norwegian are Bradley International, near Hartford, Conn, and T.F. Green, in Warwick. R.I.

Patrick Foye, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates Stewart, said the new service will be transformative for the airport and the region.

“We think in the first six months, we will get to 400,000 passengers here at Stewart and hundreds of thousands more as a result of Norwegian service,” he said. “... I think is a very exciting possibility.”

One-way flights bound for Europe started at $65 for the first 10,000 seats and already were selling out Thursday morning. Once the introductory phase is over, flights will start at $99.

The Federal Aviation Administration last week gave Norwegian permission to operate flights in and out of Stewart, as well as the Connecticut and Rhode Island airports.

The airline plans to base tow Boeing 737-800 jets at Stewart.

Norwegian won permission from the Obama administration in December for its disputed plan to expand flights to the United States. Several large U.S. airlines and their labor unions opposed the expansion, arguing it would threaten U.S. jobs. They have accused Norwegian of getting around Norway’s labor and tax laws by operating new flights with a subsidiary based in Ireland called Norwegian Air International.

The U.S. Transportation Department approved a foreign air carrier permit for the subsidiary in December, but pilot unions and other opponents are pushing President Donald Trump to overturn the decision. White House press secretary Sean Spicer suggested earlier this month that the country would benefit from the arrangement because U.S. workers would build the planes and serve them.

The board of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey last week approved a $32 billion 10-year capital plan but failed to include $20 million that initially was earmarked for a customs and immigration facility at Stewart.

The airport still will be able to accommodate the Norwegian Air service, though, by having a movable wall in the terminal to separate domestic and international passengers.