Denver International Airport has gotten even closer to Europe thanks to two new routes introduced by Norwegian Air. We spoke with Anders Lindström, Norwegian Air’s director of communications, US, to learn more and get the scoop on upcoming additions to Norwegian Air’s long-haul service to and from the United States.

Global Traveler: The newly introduced direct flights between Denver–London (LGW) and Denver–Paris (CDG) are an exciting addition to the choices available at DEN. How did Norwegian Air target these routes to be introduced specifically from Denver?

Anders Lindström: Denver is an interesting city and market, with a large population, yet very limited trans-Atlantic service. That also makes it an expensive travel market because there is so little competition. It’s also one of, if not the, fastest-growing cities in America, and we’re the world’s fastest-growing airline, so it’s a perfect match from that perspective, especially from a long-term perspective. Even though most of sales are in the United States, there’s growing interest in Denver and Colorado in Europe and we’re working with tourist boards to increase awareness of these European destinations. With our new U.S. gateways, we launch London first as it’s our most successful and popular European destination, and there is so much demand for point-to-point service.

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When we announced our entry to Denver almost exactly one year ago (April 5, 2017), bookings for London performed so well we saw there was enough demand to add a second route, Paris.

Looking at the data, Paris was also the European city most travelers from Denver were flying to that was not operated with a non-stop service, so it made perfect sense to us from that perspective. Now our focus is to grow frequencies on both routes as demand continues to increase and as we take delivery of more aircraft.

GT: What would you say to those who mistakenly equate low-cost fares with lesser service?

AL: Since there are so few long-haul low-cost and ultra-low-cost carriers, it’s understandable American customers do not fully know what to expect, especially as there is no U.S. version. The legacy carriers’ introduction of Basic Economy is also confusing passengers even more. Although these new fares are designed to compete with airlines like Norwegian, they’re still not as low as our fares and exclude what we offer all passengers, regardless of how much they pay, like carry-on luggage, overhead bin space and reward recognition — which with us is CashPoint through our Norwegian Reward program.

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Also, as a European airline, our fares are based on a European model, far lower than the American model. We can offer flights to London or Paris from Denver for less than what you sometime pay to go from Denver to New York.

With Norwegian, it’s all about low fares, but high-quality service — hopefully why we’ve won more awards than any other low-cost airline in the world the past few years, including being named the World’s Best Low-Cost Long-Haul Airline three years in a row and Airline of the Year 2017, to name a few.

GT: Anything else new and exciting you’d like to share with our readers about Norwegian Air?

AL: Our Premium cabin is doing really well, so well in fact we are increasing Premium seats, 35–56 on most of the 787-9 Dreamliners operating out to/from London and on some other routes. Our Premium is a hybrid between legacy carriers’ premium economy and business; it features most of the business-class products, such as dedicated check-in, fast track security, priority boarding, all meals and drinks, extra luggage, extra CashPoints and wide, comfortable recliner seats with more legroom than any of its competitors’ premium economy. Yet it comes at a price lower than our competitors’ premium economy. So it’s a niche product working well for us, and we see demand from both business and leisure travelers, especially when our Premium fares start as low as $689 one-way, including taxes, from Denver. Upcoming routes from the United States this month are Boston (BOS) to Paris on May 2, and New York (JFK) to Amsterdam (AMS), May 7.