Carrier to begin nonstop Las Vegas service to Stockholm, Copenhagen

A Norwegian discount air carrier will begin nonstop round trips from Las Vegas to Copenhagen, Denmark, and to Stockholm later this year.

Norwegian Air Shuttle, which is broadening its international routes this year with new flights from Europe to the Caribbean, New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, will begin weekly trips Saturdays to and from Stockholm on Oct. 31, and weekly trips Tuesdays to and from Copenhagen on Nov. 10.

The announcement was made Tuesday from the airline’s Oslo, Norway, headquarters.

The airline is expected to use twin-engine 291-passenger Boeing 787-800 jets on the route. It will be the first airline to use the Boeing’s high-tech Dreamliner aircraft for regularly scheduled service at McCarran International Airport.

“Long before Terminal 3 opened in June 2012, we foresaw the days when McCarran International Airport’s lineup of nonstop destinations would expand to include many new and exciting cities across the globe,” Clark County Aviation Director Rosemary Vassiliadis said in a statement preceding Tuesday’s announcement.

“We’re excited to add Norwegian Air’s service from Stockholm and Copenhagen later this fall. Las Vegas has never had nonstop service from Sweden nor Denmark, and we look forward to welcoming guests from those countries and elsewhere with Norwegian Air’s expansive network of markets.”

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is hoping the new flights will move it toward its goal of having 30 percent international visitation over the next decade.

“We are thrilled that this new partnership with Norwegian Airlines will connect Las Vegas directly to Sweden and Denmark for the first time,” added Cathy Tull, senior vice president of marketing for the convention authority. “Increasing accessibility to Las Vegas will introduce the city to millions of potential new visitors.”

The airline didn’t announce ticket pricing for the new routes, but Norwegian’s website offered round trips between Copenhagen and Los Angeles for a base price as low as 446 euros, or $479.

While Copenhagen has a population of 1.2 million people and Stockholm, 897,000, both cities have extensive networks to other European cities through Norwegian Air.

The airline has a fleet of 92 jets and 126 destinations, including Oslo; Berlin; Barcelona, Spain; Madrid; Helsinki; and London’s Gatwick International Airport.

The company has U.S. crew bases in New York and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Norwegian committed to expanding its international flights and Tuesday also announced flights from four European destinations to San Juan, Puerto Rico, from Copenhagen to St. Croix in the Virgin Islands and additional frequencies of flights to New York and Los Angeles.

The airline has eight Boeing 787s and has nine 344-passenger Boeing 787-900 jets on order.

In addition to flights between Scandinavia and North America, Norwegian has routes from Europe to Dubai and to Thailand.

“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,” Norwegian Chief Commercial Officer Thomas Ramdahl said in a statement.

“This makes it even more enjoyable to add more destinations to our route map of more than 100 destinations. We are looking forward to welcoming new and returning customers on our new routes from Las Vegas and the Caribbean to Europe,” he said.

Contact reporter Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Find @RickVelotta on Twitter.