It wasn’t that long ago that there was no regular transatlantic non-stop service from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport; there will soon be five destinations.
The latest one is Paris.
Norwegian Airlines is adding non-stop seasonal service to Charles de Gaulle Airport beginning in May 2020. Norwegian already flies to London Gatwick Airport, and will add more service there beginning next summer.
“Europeans have been getting to know Austin better ... The demand to go to Europe has increased immensely over the last few years and that’s why all these airlines are now coming here,” said Anders Lindstrom, communication manager for Norwegian’s U.S. operations.
The announcement came just hours after Norwegian released its best quarterly results ever after months of questions about its financial picture. The U.S. is now the airline’s largest market in terms of revenue.
Norwegian’s expansion in Austin follows KLM Royal Dutch Airlines’ decision to launch direct service to Amsterdam, also beginning in May 2020.
“We work very closely with our partners, Visit Austin and the Chamber of Commerce, to determine where Austinites want to go, what’s in Austin’s economic parameters, and we know that Paris is a place that folks in Austin have been eager to get to for a long time,” said Mandy McClendon, public information and marketing manager at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.
Both Amsterdam and Paris were named as priority cities for new non-stop service, which means airport officials could offer the airlines incentives for adding the flights. Those include waivers of facilities fees as well as money for advertising and marketing costs. No final decisions have been made just yet, according to McClendon.
“The fee waivers and incentives that are offered to them are just one way to mitigate all the risk and expense that airlines take when they start service here,” she said.
There are also regular non-stop flights to London Heathrow and Frankfurt. Austin-Bergstrom's other priority cities include Dublin, Shanghai, Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo.
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