AIRLINES

7 things to know about those $65 fares to Europe

Norwegian Air' is offering cheap fares to Europe to promote new service

Dawn Gilbertson
The Republic | azcentral.com
Norwegian Air is offering cheap flights from the United States to Europe

Another month, another low-cost airline offering rock-bottom fares to Europe.

This time it's Norwegian Air, a 24-year-old carrier serving 150 destinations around the world. The carrier is selling what it calls the cheapest transatlantic flights ever: $65 one-way fares from the East Coast to Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland for travel this summer. You can barely get to California from Phoenix for that price. In January, fellow European discounter WOW Air made headlines with $69 fares to Europe from California. Both are introductory fares to promote new U.S. routes from the rapidly growing airlines.

RELATED WOW Air offering $69 fares to Europe

Here are seven things to know about Norwegian Air and the fare sale:

1. Norwegian serves several U.S. destinations, including Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Oakland, but Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport is not in the lineup.

2. To get the $65 fares on sale today, Thursday, Feb. 23,  you must fly out of Providence, R.I., Hartford, Conn., or Orange County, N.Y., north of New York City.  The airline is starting non-stop service at those smaller airports this summer. A round-trip ticket from Phoenix to Providence this summer on Southwest Airlines starts at about $370.

3. The European destinations on sale vary by airport but don't include major cities such as London and Paris. From Providence, Norwegian is serving Belfast, Cork, Dublin, Shannon and Edinburgh. It will serve the same airports, excluding Cork, from upstate New York. The Hartford flight will be to Edinburgh. The airline is using the new Boeing 737-Max on the routes. All flights are nonstop.

4. The cheap fares are going quickly and, on many routes, already gone. From Providence to Dublin, I found the $65 fare available on just two days in late December, with the lowest return fare $80, in January. Summer flights topped $600 round trip.

5. The low-fare calendar on the airline's reservations page is the best place to find the cheapest fares by date.

6. Like Spirit and Frontier airlines, Norwegian' charges extra for things that are standard on other airlines. Major U.S. carriers allowed one free checked bag on transatlantic flights. Norwegian charges $45 each way for one checked bag, adding nearly $100 to the ticket.

7. Want early notice on the airline's fare sales? Sign up for its newsletter.