ROME -- Norwegian Air, the third low-cost airline in Europe, focuses on Italy, choosing Rome Fiumicino airport as a new base of operations. From since March 27 2016 it will allocate two Boeing 737 aircraft to the Roman airport, from which you can already take off to seven Nordic destinations: Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, Bergen, Gothenburg and London Gatwick. All these activities will create in the first period alone more than 60 jobs including pilots, flight attendants and staff in support of daily operations.

 "We are very pleased to be able to open our first Italian base in Fiumicino," states Bjorn Kjos, founder and CEO of Norwegian. "The airport plays an important strategic role in our development plans: within the network, Rome is, in fact, the gateway to Italy from northern Europe. Not surprisingly, only in 2015, two-thirds of the volume of our passengers on the Italian market has been generated just from Leonardo da Vinci airport (500,000 passengers). Therefore, from next summer, we decided to invest at Fiumicino by starting our first base in Italy - and this is only the beginning."

 "It is with great satisfaction that Aeroporti di Roma welcomes this new vector based on Leonardo da Vinci," said Fausto Palombelli, Development Director Aviation Marketing ADR. "This further development is an important stop on the route taken by the management company towards the improvement of quality of service to both passengers and airlines and emphasizes, once again, the attractiveness of the airport of the capital."

"The opening of the base," concludes Kjos, "will give us the opportunity to strengthen the partnership with the territory, contributing to the local economy by creating new jobs and increasing the incoming tourist flow. Strengthening our presence on the Roman market is also crucial with a view to future investment, to establish ourselves as a reliable and convenient alternative for travel from Italy to the main northern European destinations."

 All routes to and from Rome are available on the site www.norwegian.com.

 Norwegian’s Italian destinations are now Rome Fiumicino, Catania, Milano Malpensa, Olbia, Palermo, Pisa and Venezia Marco Polo, from where it operataes towards 24 European routes. In 2015 Norwegian carried on its Italian routes, carrying over 800 000 travellers.

 Established in 1993, Norwegian is the third largest low-cost carrier in Europe with about 5,500 employees. It operate over 400 routes to more than 130 destinations in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Thailand, the Caribbean and the US; is the only airline to offer free in-flight WiFi on UK flights to 29 European destinations

 The airline has one of the youngest aircraft fleets in the world with an average age of four years, including next-generation Boeing 787 Dreamliners and Boeing 737-800s.

 Norwegian has been voted ‘Europe’s best low-cost carrier’ by passengers for three consecutive years at SkyTrax World Airline Awards, and was also the first airline to be awarded the ‘World's best low-cost long-haul airline’ in 2015 by SkyTrax.

 Just recently, Norwegian has through its fully owned subsidiary Arctic Aviation Assets Ltd completed long-term financing of six Boeing 737 800 aircraft. The financing is structured as a private placement directed to institutional investors in the US market. The private placement is a secured long-term financing of six Boeing 737 800 Aircraft, and is part of Norwegians ongoing financing activities to fund the future growth of the Company. 

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