Norwegian Air to Set Up Argentine Arm With 10 Jets by Year's End

(Bloomberg) -- Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA will establish a unit in Argentina with 10 Boeing Co. 737 narrow-body jets by the end of this year, Chief Executive Officer Bjorn Kjos said.

The carrier has applied for an air-operating certificate from authorities in the South American country and is now seeking rights to serve domestic routes there, Kjos said in an interview. The network would link up with planned flights to Buenos Aires from cities such as London, Paris, Barcelona, Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm using Boeing 787 wide-bodies.

“We have delivered the papers and we have also applied for the routes,” Kjos said Tuesday in London. “We're looking to serve a lot of cities domestically, but it depends on the concessions.”

Norwegian Air formed an operating company at the beginning of 2017 to found a network in Argentina after earlier extending its discount model from European short-haul flights into North Atlantic operations. It has also been considering options for a second base in Asia with services from London and Paris to complement its Bangkok hub.

The airline plans to expand capacity to the U.S. next winter by allocating some of its short-haul operating slots at London's Gatwick airport to inter-continental operations, and will also start flights to smaller airports in North America using 737 Max aircraft this summer.

Kjos spoke at the Skift Global Forum in the U.K. capital.

To contact the reporter on this story: Benjamin Katz in London at bkatz38@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chris Reiter at creiter2@bloomberg.net, Christopher Jasper, Tom Lavell