Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Report: European budget airline launching Las Vegas route

Norwegian Air Shuttle

Norwegian Air via The New York Times

In an undated handout photo, a Norwegian Air Shuttle’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

Popular low-cost international carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle may be making its Las Vegas debut this winter with a direct flight between McCarran International and Copenhagen Airport in Denmark.

The Scandinavian airline will soon announce three new long-haul routes from Copenhagen to destinations including Las Vegas, Barbados and a third unknown locale, according to the Danish travel site Check-in.dk.

The airline tweeted that out of respect to the Germanwings disaster, it has postponed new long-haul destination announcements until after Easter.

A spokesman for the airline would neither confirm nor deny that Las Vegas is one of the three new routes, saying only that they are “looking forward to announcing something.”

There are currently no direct flights between Copenhagen and Las Vegas. A number of low-cost airlines offer international service from McCarran to other North American countries like Mexico and Canada, but Norwegian would mark the first discount carrier to offer flights from Las Vegas to Europe.

The airline is the third largest budget airline in Europe and expanded to the U.S. last May with roundtrip fares starting at $509. It currently offers service from New York, Los Angeles, Oakland, Orlando and Fort Lauderdale to dozens of European cities including London, Paris, Stockholm and Berlin.

McCarran spokeswoman Christine Crews also would not confirm or deny the addition of a Norwegian route. “At this time, we have nothing to announce,” she said, adding that the airport typically defers to an airline to reveal such information.

The possibility comes as passenger counts at McCarran continue to surge and as both airport officials and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority push to expand international and nonstop air service to the city.

The Clark County Aviation Department today reported that traveler counts remain on track to surpass last year’s mark of nearly 43 million passengers. The airport welcomed 3.2 million visitors in February, up 2.9 percent from the same time last year. International passenger count grew 7.1 percent year over year to 243,407 travelers, while domestic passengers jumped 2.9 percent to 2.9 million.

Follow Andrea Domanick on Twitter at @AndreaDomanick and fan her on Facebook at Facebook.com/AndreaDomanick.

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