Great news for fans of Shannon airport as the Irish west-coast service to New York is set to double with Norwegian Air.

It’s time to start looking at your Christmas trip to New York! Low-cost airline Norwegian Air has announced that it’s Shannon to New York service is set to double for Winter 2018/19, expanding to four flights a week. The service was already set to be boosted to three flights a week for summer 2018.

The move comes, however, as the airline also cancels it winter service between Cork and Shannon and Providence, Rhode Island, due to a lack of demand. The route will no longer run to the west-coast Irish destinations between November and March.

“We are very pleased that the popular New York service has been expanded for this Winter and shows the demand for the destination,” said Shannon group Managing Director, Andrew Murphy.

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“The seasonal suspension of Providence is disappointing but is in line with other Irish and International airports which have seen similar reductions.

“Overall we have grown our annual transatlantic capacity with Norwegian substantially for Summer 2018. This announcement for Winter sees us maintaining a similar capacity to last year, albeit with a change in the destination mix.”

The Scandinavian airline had just begun their Cork and Shannon to RI route in summer 2017, offering one-way flights from as little as $120. The move was seen as a massive new chapter for Cork airport which had not been able to offer transatlantic routes to passengers until last year and it was thought to offer a boost in tourism for both Cork and Shannon.

The quieter winter period has now seen the service suspended, however, as well as the winter service between RI and Edinburgh, Scotland. Both services will remain in place between March and October.

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Speaking to Cork’s RedFM, Cork Airport head of communications Kevin Cullinane said that the airport was in discussions with a number of airlines about the possibility of other transatlantic options from Cork.

“Norwegian is one airline we are speaking to and obviously our route development people are in discussions with a number of other transatlantic carriers into other opportunities in US and Canada,” he said.

“So hopefully those discussions will come to fruition this year and we can see an expansion of transatlantic services out of Cork where we can show there is proven demand and that can be met by the supply of an airline.”

Have you traveled transatlantic with Norwegian? Let us know what you thought in the comments section, below.