Want to fly to Oslo, Norway? You now can from this South Florida airport
Discount travel to Europe became a reality Monday when a startup carrier inaugurated thrice-weekly flights to Oslo, Norway, from Fort LauderdaleHollywood International Airport.
Norwegian airline Norse Atlantic Airways, which launched its service last week from JFK International Airport in New York, departed at 3:30 p.m. Monday from Fort Lauderdale to Oslo, the Norwegian capital. It was scheduled to arrive at 6:35 a.m. Tuesday.
The flight, the first nonstop from Fort Lauderdale to Oslo, is wooing passengers with its cheap introductory fares. One-way flights from Fort Lauderdale to Oslo start at $149, return flights from $167. It will fly from Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.
And similar to other discount carriers, passengers will have to pay for carry-ons ($25), checked bags ($60-$170), meals ($20-$30), priority check-in ($20) and seat selection ($25-$120), among other things.
Norse Air is flying Boeing 787 Dreamliners that were once owned by Norwegian Air. The planes carry 333 people.
“We’re open for business,” said Broward County Mayor Michael Udine. “We’re moving people around. You can see the airport is super busy. And it’s great to have a direct transatlantic flight, right from Fort Lauderdale to Norway.”
Bjorn Tore-Larsen, Norse Atlantic CEO, said at the airport Monday: “We are very pleased that we have landed in Fort Lauderdale.”
Tore-Larsen said the company set up Norse’s American headquarters at the Fort Lauderdale airport given its “perfect” size.
“You’re not drowning in the millions of passengers. But at the same time, it’s not so small that you can’t go where you want to go.“
Norse, which started in March 2021, will start flying out of Orlando in July.
The U.S. government’s decision to drop COVID-19 testing in June for in-bound international travelers has boosted travel, said Anthony Cordo, executive vice president of Visit Lauderdale.
Airline travel has been picking up in 2022 after significant shortfalls in
2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The number of people who passed through TSA checkpoints in the U.S. on Sunday was 2,384,449, according to the U.S. Transportation Security Administration. That’s up from 2,100,761 on June 19, 2021, and significantly up from the 590,456 who passed through TSA checkpoints on June 19, 2020, shortly after the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
According to Mark Gale, the chief executive of the Fort Lauderdale airport, the economic impact of Norse’s flights will bring $48 million to the local tourism industry for the year.
“We’re very keen on trying to make sure that we do our part as an economic engine for the community in which we live in and serve,” Gale said. “And that if we can attract this service to our airport, that those that utilize that service to come over here, whether they’re coming for business or they’re coming for leisure, that has a significant economic impact to the betterment of our community.”
Norse said it plans to open flights to London, Berlin and Paris.