The management of Norwegian Air have reiterated a promise to deliver $69 trans-Atlantic flights using the new Boeing 737 MAX 8 airliner, starting sometime in 2017:
According to Norwegian Air chief commercial officer Thomas Ramdahl, his airline is awaiting the aircraft needed for the $69 flights. That's because the first of the 100 Boeing 737 MAX 8 airliners Norwegian Air ordered to operate those flights won't be ready for delivery until 2017. The Boeing 737 Max 8 is expected to enter service with launch partner Southwest Airlines during the third quarter of 2017. However, Boeing told Bloomberg's Julie Johnson and Mary Schlangenstein that the planes could be ready for delivery as early as March.
Ramdahl told Business Insider that his airline plans to make an announcement around November or December of this year with firm details of the $69 fares. "I can promise you that you will see trans-Atlantic flights on the 737Max next year," Ramdahl told us in an interview last week. "And that's when you will see the $69 fares."
The 737 MAX 8 features new fuel-efficient CFM LEAP-1B engines, upgraded avionics, and aerodynamics. As as result, the new jet offers airlines the range and performance to operate trans-Atlantic service with the lower cost of a narrow-body jet.
Found at NBF, which mentions other variants of the 737 MAX.
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U.S. Grounds Boeing Planes, After Days of Pressure
After days of mounting pressure, the United States grounded Boeing's 737 Max aircraft on Wednesday, reversing an earlier decision in which American regulators said the planes could keep flying after a deadly crash in Ethiopia.
The decision, announced by President Trump, followed determinations by safety regulators in some 42 countries to ban flights by the jets, which are now grounded worldwide. Pilots, flight attendants, consumers and politicians from both major parties had been agitating for the planes to be grounded in the United States. Despite the clamor, the Federal Aviation Administration had been resolute, saying on Tuesday that it had seen "no systemic performance issues" that would prompt it to halt flights of the jet.
That changed Wednesday when, in relatively quick succession, Canadian and American aviation authorities said they were grounding the planes after newly available satellite-tracking data suggested similarities between Sunday's crash in Ethiopia and one involving a Boeing 737 Max 8 in Indonesia in October.
Previously: Second 737 MAX8 Airplane Crash Reinforces Speculation on Flying System Problems
Related: Boeing 737 MAX 8 Could Enable $69 Trans-Atlantic Flights
Boeing's promised 737 Max production halt begins:
The airline manufacturer had announced last month it would stop making the troubled craft at least until it was no longer grounded, but hadn't set a date. However the line has officially stopped producing planes while Boeing officials wait for regulators to give it the OK to fly again.
[...] The latest update estimated the grounding would last through at least mid-2020, Boeing said in a statement Tuesday.
Boeing will reassign 3,000 workers after 737 MAX production halt
Boeing Co said it will reassign 3,000 workers to other jobs as it halts production of the grounded best-selling 737 MAX jet in mid-January.
The announcement came after American Airlines Group Inc and Mexico's Aeromexico disclosed they were the latest carriers to reach settlements with Boeing over losses resulting from the grounding of the 737 MAX aircraft.
Neither airline disclosed the compensation. A number of airlines have struck confidential settlements with Boeing in recent weeks. Boeing said it does not comment on discussions with airlines.
Boeing's biggest supplier lays off 2,800 workers because of 737 Max production suspension:
Spirit AeroSystems (SPR), which makes fuselages for the Max as well as other items for Boeing, announced Friday that it is furloughing approximately 2,800 workers. Shares of the Wichita, Kansas-based company fell more than 1% in trading.
"The difficult decision announced today is a necessary step given the uncertainty related to both the timing for resuming 737 Max production and the overall production levels that can be expected following the production suspension," Spirit AeroSystems CEO Tom Gentile said in a press release.
Boeing wants to resume 737 Max production months before regulators sign off on the planes:
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday September 15 2016, @11:16AM
Here's some more stuff. [nextbigfuture.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 15 2016, @11:36AM
Will never happen. Greedy capitalist corporate types will see this as an opprtunity for profit. A $69 cost will balloon to $500/per and the greedy fucks will take home the rest.
Greedy capitalism has killed the airline industry and this will be no different.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Nerdfest on Thursday September 15 2016, @02:39PM
I was going to say the same thing. There's no such thing as "enough profit" apparently. From what I hear, in some places this is actually law when it comes to public companies. "Maximize profits" or get sued.
(Score: 2) by skater on Thursday September 15 2016, @04:03PM
Unless the low prices mean that many more people fly the route.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Thursday September 15 2016, @04:27PM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday September 15 2016, @07:01PM
Then you run into landing slots and gate issues, especially when you have to dock at an ICE-capable gate.
So your seats are highly desirable and go up in price.
The solution becomes a bigger plane again, which should provide economies of scale, rendering this Boeing ad quite moot.
While Europe has low-cost companies using smaller planes to/from smaller airports, with the support of those airports which arrange for regional connectivity and provide subsidies for the extra jobs, this system just doesn't seem to be working in the US.
A good deal of consolidation a decade ago took care of the competition problem, so people take whatever max-profit route they are offered, pay their 100%-profit surcharges, and shut up.
(Score: 2) by gawdonblue on Thursday September 15 2016, @09:52PM
Make up for your losses on each ticket with higher volume! The more you sell the more you save!
(Score: 4, Informative) by opinionated_science on Thursday September 15 2016, @11:44AM
as a frequent transatlantic traveler, you find out the cost of the flight is not the overwhelming cost. It is the *taxes* that are slapped on the flight.
Something like $300 of taxes to fly to LHR , via NYC. Only slightly better going via IAD, but much more pleasant...
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Thursday September 15 2016, @01:10PM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by riT-k0MA on Thursday September 15 2016, @01:29PM
A large portion of those taxes is "fuel tax". The airlines moved their entire fuel charge from "cost" to "tax" a while ago.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by quacking duck on Thursday September 15 2016, @01:40PM
A Canadian airline made a point to highlight this over a decade ago, by advertising limited $1 promo fares.
The fees, taxes, and taxes on top of those fees and taxes, came out to somewhere between $100 and $200.
Legislation was passed in 2007 (Bill 11, Transportation Amendment Act) that forced airfare quotes in Canada to include the *total* cost of airfare, post-tax and post-fees.
It seems the US followed suit in 2012, but in defiance of all common sense, they're trying to overturn that [cntraveler.com] and allow consumers to be misled all over again.
(Score: 2, Informative) by shipofgold on Thursday September 15 2016, @02:53PM
I just priced a ticket on their WWW site. Indeed I can fly for $471 roundtrip from USA to Amsterdam (connecting in Oslo) including taxes. But...
Checked baggage cost extra
Meals cost extra
Seat Reservation cost extra.
They do offer a $200 upgrade option that brings the price to $671 which, while cheap, isn't earth shattering
I fully expect that a $138 round trip ticket may become available, but it won't be an easy trip for a tourist. For the person who is OK with 10Kg hand baggage (including food/drinks ) and doesn't mind a center seat 14 rows away from a spouse, have at it.
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Thursday September 15 2016, @04:20PM
try via NYC and LHR - those aiports have "special" taxes.
A interesting historical point, that at one point, only 4 airlines could fly between NYC and LHR...not sure if that still holds.
My point was, the ticket price has little to do with fuel, and more to do with demand for that seat...
(Score: 2) by Username on Thursday September 15 2016, @10:05PM
What about shuttles, tolls... toilets? Airports will nickel and dime your for everything.
Personally I wouldn’t mind a rear center seat. Most survivable.
(Score: 4, Funny) by wonkey_monkey on Thursday September 15 2016, @12:51PM
...you have to go to Norway.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday September 15 2016, @12:55PM
http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2016/09/west-coast-of-us-to-europe-flights-can.html [nextbigfuture.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Thursday September 15 2016, @01:28PM
Shhh, you're ruining it.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Thursday September 15 2016, @03:16PM
My buddy is trying to convince me to join him in Sweden for a vacation this February. LA to Stockholm is ~300USD.
(Score: 2) by mendax on Thursday September 15 2016, @09:00PM
Your buddy must be a vampire. Stockholm doesn't get a lot of sunlight in February. And dress warmly. I'd leave your swimming suit at home.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 2) by mendax on Thursday September 15 2016, @08:56PM
Norway isn't so bad... so long as you don't arrive in the Winter. And it's filled with far more enlightened people than the UK, although there are a lot fewer of them there. Of course, if you want to go to the other parts of Europe you have a bit of a hike in front of you.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 2) by aclarke on Thursday September 15 2016, @03:19PM
I can only guess they've priced the flights at $69 because that's the position you'll be in with the person beside you to fit enough people in the plane to make the price viable.
On a more serious note, a couple I know and their infant are travelling from Toronto to Berlin round trip for under C$1100 in a few weeks. Tickets were around $400 each. They pay just the tax on the infant, and that includes the extra charges for a checked bag or two for their two month trip. That's with WOW Air, so the discount tickets are already coming to trans-Atlantic flights. WestJet might start adding routes, and there's always IcelandAir as well which gives you the bonus of stopping by Iceland on your way across and spending all that money there that you saved on air fare.
(Score: 2) by mendax on Thursday September 15 2016, @09:07PM
I don't think I'd want to make a long trans-Atlantic flight with my large frame squeezed into a narrow airline seat with no leg room, no food, and on a narrow body plane to boot! This is not 1960 after all, wen the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 were all the rage, and even then those planes offered better everything, even flying economy. Wide-body planes are great for people like me who are do not like closed-in spaces. They actually may not offer a better seat or leg room, but at least you don't feel that I'm flying in a sardine can.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 2) by f4r on Saturday September 17 2016, @02:54AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=069y1MpOkQY [youtube.com]
Do not use as directed.