Norwegian Air launched twice-weekly Tampa-London Gatwick
service on Wednesday.
The discount carrier goes head-to-head against British
Airways' daily service, making Tampa the third-smallest market in the U.S. to
have competing transatlantic service.
According to the FAA, Tampa's airport serviced 9.5 million
departing passengers in 2017, the 29th most among U.S. airports. Data provided
by airline analytics company OAG shows that the only smaller U.S. airports with
competing transatlantic service are Austin and Oakland.
Austin ranked 34th on
the FAA list with 6.8 million departing passengers in 2017, while Oakland
ranked 36th with 6.4 million departing passengers. Notably, Norwegian and
British Airways compete at both of those airports on London service.
Cleveland, which boarded the 43rd most passengers among U.S.
airport in 2017, had competing transatlantic service this year, but competition
between Icelandair and Wow Air came to an end on Wednesday with the suspension
of Wow's Cleveland-Reykjavik service.
The fifth-smallest U.S. airport to have competing transatlantic
service, Fort Lauderdale, also features Norwegian and British Airways flying to
London.
For Tampa, Norwegian becomes the fifth airline to fly to
Europe, joining British Airways, Lufthansa (Frankfurt), Edelweiss (Zurich) and
Icelandair (Reykjavik).