Welcome to this flight report featuring Norwegian Air Shuttle in Economy Class from Málaga, Spain to Oslo Torp, Norway.
Booking with Norwegian Air
When you travel full-time, sometimes you need to do a positioning flight to prepare for the next journey. My repositioning was from Málaga, Spain to Oslo for a flight from Oslo to Fort Lauderdale with Norse Atlantic for a flight review. When I booked on the Norwegian Air booking website, almost every flight into Oslo Gardermoen was crazy expensive. This was the sole flight under £200 one way to Oslo Torp, the hub for low cost flights. The Norwegian website is pretty straightforward to use. As this is a low cost provider, any additional amenities cost extra. I ordered some food as this flight would take off at 6.30am and was a 4 hour trip. Norwegian has made the additional items easy to add without bashing you over the head like Ryanair or Easyjet websites.
Check-in at Malaga Airport: Norwegian Air
Usually, I travel with only hand luggage, however, I had some bad memories about a previous Norwegian flight, when I had to throw away the lunch I had just purchased because my bag was 0.5kg over weight! So this time, I arranged to check-in my small wheelie bag to avoid any issues. Check-in was not at all crowded and was smooth and fast. At this time of the year (February 2023), Málaga Airport is quiet, so there is no need to pay for Fast Track.
Boarding
Boarding was from the D gates, which are not far from security. Norwegian boards using 3 zones. I was in Zone B, but to be honest it didn't matter too much as Norwegian also uses buses to a remotely parked Boeing 737. Saying that, it was all quite straightforward and passengers were not waiting for too long.
Cabin & Seat
This Boeing 737 had clearly been well-used, but was very clean and, for short flights, the seats are oh-kaayyyy. For this 4 hour flight, it was perhaps a little cramped. The cabin crew was efficient.
There's a storage area for paperwork (don't get your phone or iPad trapped in there!).
IFE – In-flight Entertainment
This aircraft had no IFE at all, but wi-fi is well publicised, principally because it's an extra charge! I decided not to splash out on this occasion, but on the Norwegian wi-fi landing page, there is a free page showing flight progress and a moving map. This can keep me perfectly happy for hours! However, this lack of IFE means there is no charging port for your phone.
Food & Drinks
I did pre-order a hot meal for this flight, reckoning that with a 2 hour transfer time from Oslo Torp Airport to Oslo City, I would need some sustenance. You don't HAVE to pre-order, as there's a menu with snacks for purchase, but to guarantee the meal you want, it can be wise to order ahead.
I was surprised that a drink was NOT included with my pre-order, so I had to pay for a Starbucks filter coffee. It tasted perfectly fine and started the process of getting me into the day!
Shortly after drinks service, my pre-ordered meal arrived.
The one available hot meal on longer flights South to North was a small kind of quiche/omelette with a chicken sausage, potatoes and ratatouille.
This was absolutely fine. The meal was warm, even if it wouldn't win any culinary awards!
On Arrival
On arrival at Oslo Torp, it took barely 3 minutes to get from the runway to our stand. The steps were extremely icy, as the weather was still cold this late in February. It was about 200 metres to get into the terminal building. I did spot two policemen waiting to get on board the rear of the plane, but can't be certain what that was about!
You should know that, on arrival in Norway, you have the chance to buy Duty Free (including alcohol, perfumes and tobacco). This is a VERY popular option as these goods are very expensive in Norway and alcohol above a 4.7% volume can only be purchased from a government outlet. Lots of people were using the chance to stock up!
Oslo Torp is not a large airport and ours was the only incoming flight at that moment, so it took no more than 10 minutes for baggage to start to come through. It was fun, I thought, that there was snow on my case when it came off the belt!
Overall Impression
Norwegian had a bit of a reputation as a low cost European airline. Relatively efficient, but very rules-driven about that hand luggage weight. This flight is helping to turn around my opinion. Everything was quite straightforward: the onboard service is functional and is what it promises to be. It would be no harm for Norwegian to continue to build on these successes in a way that Ryanair has done very successfully. We need continuing competition in European airspace that focuses on customer experience (not just price). I hope we continue to see Norwegian stay in the skies.
I did get a snooze in the skies, using this Go travel pillow. Read my independent review of this by clicking here.
