Budget carrier adds Las Vegas flights to Copenhagen, Stockholm

Norwegian Air Shuttle, a popular low-cost international carrier, will make its Las Vegas debut this fall with nonstop flights between Las Vegas and Copenhagen, Denmark, or Stockholm, Sweden.

The new routes are the first by discount carrier between Las Vegas and Europe and the first direct flights from Las Vegas to Denmark and Sweden.

Weekly trips on Saturdays to and from Stockholm will begin Oct. 31, with weekly flights on Tuesdays to Copenhagen beginning Nov. 10.

The new legs are part of an expansion of the Scandinavian airline’s international routes, which also include new flights from Europe to Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, New York and Los Angeles.

“The response we’ve had on our intercontinental destinations has been overwhelming, and it is obvious that affordable fares were scarce before Norwegian entered the market,” the airline’s Chief Commercial Officer Thomas Ramdahl said in a statement.

The announcement came today from the carrier’s headquarters in Oslo, Norway, confirming the Sun’s report last month of Norwegian’s planned expansion to Las Vegas.

Though the announcement did not include ticket pricing for the new routes, Norwegian’s website showed round-trip base fares between Las Vegas and Copenhagen for as low as $552.10. Base fares between Las Vegas and Stockholm were offered for as low as $438.10.

The airline is expected to use advanced twin-engine Boeing 787-800 Dreamliner jets on the new routes, making it the first carrier to use the fuel-efficient 291-passenger aircraft for regularly scheduled service at McCarran International Airport.

Norwegian is the third largest budget airline in Europe and expanded to the U.S. last May. In addition to Las Vegas, 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.

The announcement arrives 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.

Thus far, traveler counts in 2015 remain on track to surpass last year’s mark of nearly 43 million passengers, according to the Clark County Aviation Department. The airport welcomed 3.2 million visitors in February, up 2.9 percent from the same month last year.

International passenger count grew 7.1 percent year over year to 243,407 travelers, while the number of domestic passengers jumped 2.9 percent to 2.9 million.

Business

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