Norwegian operates half its London-New York flights using old aircraft

Have you ever heard of Wamos Air?

Half of Norwegian's London to New York flights will be operated by Wamos Air until the end of October (Getty Images)

Passengers booked to fly from London to New York on Norwegian in September and October have a 50 per cent chance of finding themselves on an entirely different airline altogether.

The long-haul low-cost carrier, which recently announced it carried a record 3.8 million passengers in July, has leased a 19-year-old Airbus 330 from Wamos Air to use on the route. This little-known Spanish airline operates charter flights from Spain to destinations in Central America including Cancun, Punta Cana and Guatemala.

In June, Norwegian announced that half of its London Gatwick to New York JFK flights would be operated by Wamos, thanks to ongoing engine trouble with its Boeing 787 "Dreamliner" aircraft, with the agreement lasting until 23 July.

Norwegian flies to a number of transatlantic destinations from London Gatwick. As well as New York, it flies to Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle.

Then at the end of August, Norwegian announced that the leased aircraft operation had been extended until 27 October, with one of every two daily flights it runs between London Gatwick and New York operated by a Wamos A330. Separately, Norwegian announced that Wamos will operate the six-times-weekly route from London Gatwick to Fort Lauderdale until 10 January 2019.

According to a Norwegian statement: “In line with other airlines that have been affected by similar problems, continuing issues concerning a specific Rolls-Royce engine type have impacted our Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet availability. To mitigate the impact on our customers and to avoid cancellations we have wet-leased various aircraft from different providers to ensure that we can fly our complete schedule.”

While Norwegian has won acclaim for its cheap transatlantic flights on the modern Dreamliner, Wamos Air does not share in its glory. The experience onboard Wamos has been called “hilariously bad” by The Points Guy, with the aviation website labelling the Wamos 747 business class service “ancient” and “smelly”.

Airlines "wet-lease" aircraft to make up the schedule if a plane cannot fly, or to make up extra demand. Last week, The Independent reported that British Airways wet-leased an Air Belgium aircraft to operate its London-Cairo route.