unaligned

European passengers flying long-haul to the US or South America will now be able to book their flights through EasyJet after the airline launched a service aimed at connecting flights internationally. EasyJet has teamed up with Norwegian Air Shuttle and WestJet to allow passengers to book connecting flights on a combined ticket. This means a traveller wanting to fly between Europe and then connect to the US, South America or Asia, and vice versa, will be able to do so by buying 1 ticket through EasyJet’s website. The move by EasyJet will for the first time see the low-cost carriers rivalling the alliances of the traditional network carriers. EasyJet said it was in talks with other carriers, including Middle-Eastern and Asian airlines, to expand the new service, which it has called “Worldwide by EasyJet”. <br/>

Norwegian Air Shuttle’s Irish subsidiary lost more than E170m on the sale of European flights last year, the latest figures show. The group’s Irish arm, Norwegian Air International, began flying from Ireland to the north-eastern US in July. Accounts just filed for the company show it lost US$205m (E172.5m) in 2016, almost 4 times the $60m shortfall recorded in 2015. Revenue more than doubled to $1.52b from $720m. The figures cover Norwegian’s flights within Europe in 2016, not revenue from routes launched from this country in July, which will be included in accounts published in 2018. A spokesman said Norwegian Air International is likely to launch further long-haul services from Ireland and western Europe next year. “That is part of what we are finalising at the moment,” he explained. <br/>