Norwegian's orders make it a candidate

Norwegian’s steady move towards becoming a long-haul Boeing 787 operator, alongside a growing European short-haul distribution system, promises to make it a serious low-cost network airline. The carrier’s recent deal to lock in access to a large fleet of 222 fuel-efficient short-haul aircraft over the second half of the decade will transform a successful local LCC into a global force.

The order announcement in a nutshell does a lot more than promise a bigger airline. Its potentially strong position now propels it into a new sphere where it becomes a candidate to be the first LCC member of one of the big three global alliances – until now the exclusive realm of legacy network airlines.

Norwegian has been Europe's most successful and highest growth airline over recent years. Aggressively expanding in the Nordic markets and across Europe, helped along by the failure of Denmark's Sterling Airlines, the carrier has a low-cost base and a strategy that recognises standing however is not an option. It is as well the first organically grown European LCC to plot a course to becoming a long-haul airline too, connecting traffic into its fast expanding European short-haul network, between Asia and the US East coast.

The first of the new narrowbody aircraft orders will not be arriving for another four years and many will be replacements. By that time the airline's Boeing 787s should be feeding long-haul traffic in from Asia and North America, as the strategy increasingly embraces a network operation. An influx of new fuel-efficient short-haul aircraft greatly improves its position to distribute that traffic across Europe.

The long-haul market

As Norwegian moves into the long-haul market and takes on the appearance of a low-cost network airline, several things happen. First it gets into the big league, where the incumbent network airlines have the benefit of longer established hubs, so then known global brands and market awareness.

Secondly, those competitors are nearly all members of global alliances, something that gives them enormous leverage. The mutual marketing and traffic feed is starting to make them then-nigh invulnerable on long haul network operations.

Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA as well wholly owns communication services company Call Norwegian AS, which provides mobile and content services, mobile broadband, airport Wi-Fi and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) - hence one of the highly popular features of Norwegian is free in-flight Wi-Fi and calls on its Boeing 737-800 fleet.

Low-cost network airline

As a low-cost network airline, operating as it will be with the world's most efficient fleet, Mr Kjos may be generating a revolution in more than simply pricing.