Can low fares airlines compete in long distance flights?

Can low fares airlines compete in long distance flights? In the history low fares airlines have been succesful in short and medium term flights. If you take a look at routes from/to popular european tourist cities you can find many low fares airlines competing and many of them are still making profit but there is very limited supply of low fares long distance flights. The main reason is that long distance airlines get most cost savings in fast and efficient use of airplanes and personnel. In short and medium term flights it really makes difference wheather the plane and crew are at the airport 30 or 50 minutes between two 1 hour flights. When we are talking about flights over 8 hours this difference becomes less important and cost advantage is less important.

Norwegian low fares airline Norwegian Air Shuttle AS believes that they can get cost advantage using new Boeing 787 Dreamliners that need less fuel than older planes. Unfortunately the story of Boeing 787 Dreamliner is full of technical challenges and it's not yet certain that Norwegians can start their long distance cheap flights in May 2013 as they have planned. Norwegians seem to believe that Boeing can solve battery problems of Dreamliner and they are selling their Stockholm-New York, Oslo-New York, Stockholm-Bangkok and Oslo-Bangkok flights at norwegian.com. It's interesting to see if also long distance flights become playground of carries like Ryanair and EasyJet. When can we see first London Stansted-US flights with GBP 99/one way.

Norwegian Air Shuttle big Autumn Sales start Tue 21.8 - Cheap flights Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki and many other cities

Norwegian Air Shuttle is a low fares airline with strong market position in Scandinavia. In Central Europe they market themselves as gateway to Scandinavia. Norwegian flies from many european metropoles to scandinavian capitals. They have flights from Paris, Rome, Barcelona, London and many other city to scandinavian capitals Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo and Helsinki.

Norwegian Air Shuttle is definetely a low fares airline but not as much oriented on cost savings as for example Ryanair. Just like EasyJet Norwegian Air Shuttle usually uses normal airports and avoids more distant airports that Ryanair uses (Milan Bergamo, Brussels Charleroi, London Luton/Stansted, Barcelona Girona etc.).

Norwegian Air Shuttle will have a big Autumn Sales campaign starting Tuesday August 21st. Sales prices are still a secret but it's very likely that there will be cheap flights between Scandinavian capitals and big european cities. If you are looking for cheap flights to Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki or Oslo, it's worth visiting website of Norwegian Air Shuttle next week.