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Norwegian sales boss outlines ‘ambitious’ growth plans
Norwegian is looking to add more Asian and possible South American routes to its network as it focuses on long-haul.
The rapidly expanding airline, which was given the go-ahead to operate transatlantic flights last month, already flies from the UK to several US destinations. It launched Singapore in September and will start flying to Buenos Aires in February.
Speaking at this year’s ABTA Convention, the airline’s head of sales UK and Ireland, Dominic Tucker, said it had ‘ambitious plans’, with 220 aircraft on order.
"We’ve got big growth plans for the UK," he said. "We’re going to focus on long-haul as the business model seems very sustainable."
When asked if the airline was growing too quickly, he said: "If I’m honest, we’re on the cusp, but you just have to be very organised."
He said the airline was currently operating with 85% load factor on short-haul routes, and 96% on long-haul, but said that by 2020 it would be able to ‘optimise flights better than we do now’.
Dismissing claims by Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary that Norwegian is ‘running out of cash’, he insisted: "We’re not losing money. We’ve had 10 years of profitability and we’ve got a strong cash flow. There’s no real basis in these comments. We’re not in any problems at the moment."
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Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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