We take it for granted now but transatlantic travel has transformed our lives.
And that is in no small part down to the influence of low-cost carriers.
And why I lament today Norwegian discontinuing its service to North America.
It is 100 years since John Alcock and Arthur Brown landed their modified First World War Vickers Vimy bomber in Clifden, Connemara…
The first non-stop manned flight… those birdies had us beat on that one.
And we take flights across to America now as easily as we do trips to Lanzarote.
And 61 years on from the first flight from our national airline carrier Aer Lingus www.aerlingus.com now carries a million of us over to the Oo S of A every year.
And that’s not to mention the other carriers who fly us to the States.
The number of passengers able to fly to North America is directly correlated to prices falling over the years.
I remember well the impact that Freddie Laker’s airline had on all of us back in the Seventies.
Where once America was considered beyond our reach we were soon walking the same streets we’d watched on the TV and movies.
And yet here we are today processing the loss of Norwegian’s www.norwegian.com routes from Dublin, Cork and Shannon
On the back of WOW which, of course, boasted the Iceland lay-off.
Norwegian which flies out to New York Stewart, Boston and Toronto will cease flights from September 15.
The main reason… the grounding of the Boeing 737 Max aircraft.
Looking after the customer
Matthew Wood, a senior vice-president at Norwegian, assured worried passengers:
‘We are assisting customers by ensuring we can still get to their destination by rerouting them on to other Norwegian services.
‘Customers will also be offered a full refund if they no longer wish to travel.’
Visit the Norwegian website for more information.
And, of course, amid all the doom and gloom it is worth remembering how lucky we still are.
There is still a tranche of airlines out there flying to the States.
I found Air Canada www.aircanada.com on www/kayak.ie from Dublin to New York La Guardia with the dates Tuesday, October 22 to Sunday, October 27.
And for what’s going on in the air, and on ground read Flyday Friday https://jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2019/08/09/flyday-friday-madeira/ every week on the day after Thursday.
