国际英语新闻:Norwegian Air to open new direct service from Chicago to Barcelona this summer

CHICAGO, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Chicago Department of Aviation and Norwegian Air said Friday that they have joined hands in opening a new nonstop service from Chicago O'Hare International Airport in the United States to Barcelona-El Prat Airport in Spain.

A Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft will carry out the service from O'Hare starting from June 7, 2019, and operate four times weekly until October 26, 2019. The Barcelona service complements the existing weekly service offered from O'Hare to London via Norwegian.

The new route to Barcelona is the sixth new international route O'Hare Airport has opened in 2019 so far, following the new flights to never-before-served destinations Athens and Lisbon; as well as additional services to Halifax, Puerto Vallarta and Quebec City that are set to begin later this year.

"New direct services to Barcelona and other key international cities from O'Hare are fueling Chicago's leading connectivity to the world," said Jamie L. Rhee, Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Aviation.

In 2018, Chicago added a record 17 new international routes from O'Hare, increasing Chicago's connectivity to new parts of the world. Chicago became one of only six cities globally to have nonstop passenger air service to all six major inhabited regions of the world.

Norwegian Air is the world's fifth largest low-cost airline and carried 37 million passengers in 2018.