Norse Atlantic Airways defers launch to late 2Q22

Norse Atlantic Airways (Oslo Gardermoen) has announced it will now launch in June 2022, rather than in April, due to rising fuel prices and market uncertainty resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“The tragedy unfolding in Ukraine creates uncertainties within international air transport that we take seriously. Norse’s flexible fleet arrangements, low-cost base and strong financial foundation allow us to take a careful approach to launch. We are in a unique position as we have not yet started flying, which gives us the advantage to enter the market cautiously in line with demand and quickly adapt to unforeseen events,” Chief Executive and Founder Bjørn Tore Larsen said.

The Norwegian long-haul low-cost carrier will begin ticket sales in April. Its initial network will comprise services from Oslo Gardermoen to destinations in the United States, which have yet to be identified. According to the US foreign air carrier permit filing, Norse plans to serve Fort Lauderdale Int’l, Ontario, and Newburgh initially.

Norse Atlantic Airways has also said it has now secured two 6x weekly slot pairs at London Gatwick, crucial for its planned transatlantic operations from the British gateway operated by Norse Atlantic (United Kingdom). Having failed to acquire slots from Norwegian Group earlier, the start-up said it has now been allocated the slots by Airport Coordination Limited (ACL-UK) at no cost.

The airline plans to launch services from Gatwick at some point in summer 2022, although it did not provide a detailed timeline. It said that its network plans also comprise long-haul services from Paris “as soon as the market situation allows”.

The start-up plans to focus on long-haul services with a fleet of B787s. It has thus far taken seven B787-9s and plans to add a further three B787-8s and five -9s, the ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows.