Norwegian Boeing 787 Dreamliner
Oslo - London
August 2013
A few months back, Norwegian announced they would be operating flights within Europe on their Boeing 787 Dreamliner from Oslo, before putting the aircraft on long haul routes. With fares of around £35 for a flight from Oslo to Gatwick, this was an opportunity I couldn't miss! I decided to go on a day trip to Oslo.
Having caught the 05:50 flight from London Gatwick to Oslo, I had plenty of time to visit the city before my 18:10 flight back home. The weather was perfect, very warm and sunny. For those who haven't visited Oslo, I found it to be a very compact city, with most of the main attractions within close proximity to one another.
Soon it was time to head back to the airport and catch my flight on the 787. Once at the airport I printed my boarding pass using one of the many self-service kiosks, then headed through security. This didn't take too long and I was soon in the departure lounge.
My flight was departing from Gate 59, which required me to pass through passport control. There was an extremely long queue for this and it took half an hour before I could pass through to the gate area. Thankfully I was in no rush and this wasn't really a problem.
It wasn't long before boarding began and I made my way down the jet-bridge and onto the 787. The first thing that strikes you when entering the 787 is just how light and airy the plane feels. The difference in window size is very noticeable.
The seats were quite comfortable and there was sufficient legroom. The flight was fairly full, though there were quite a few empty seats around, with the two seats next to me remaining empty.
Date: 1st August 2013
Flight: DY1310
From: Oslo Gardermoen (OSL)
To: London Gatwick (LGW)
Dep: 18:10
Arr: 19:30
Aircraft: Boeing 787-8
Reg: EI-LNA
Seat: 10J
It took a while for boarding to be completed, but soon we pushed back and the engines were started. This really wasn't very noticeable at all and throughout the taxi to Runway 19L, the air conditioning made more noise than the engines. Having heard about how quiet the 787 is, I was interested to find out for myself how quiet it really was. We soon lined up on the runway and after a few minutes the engines spooled up to take off power.
After a swift take off roll we were airborne. Compared to the Boeing 737 I had flown to Oslo earlier that day, the 787 really was much quieter.
I spent most of the flight playing around with the IFE and dimming the window. At its darkest setting, with the sun shining directly on the window, it still lets quite a bit of light through which could be a pain if you are trying to sleep.
After cruising at FL430 (the highest I've ever been), it was time for a gradual descent into Gatwick. During the descent the mood lighting cycled through different colours which was pretty cool.