When it comes to transatlantic travel, Norwegian Air is dead. But in its place comes a new budget airline that hopes to fly 787s on transatlantic routes. Welcome aboard Norse Atlantic Airways.
Norse Atlantic Airways, The Successor To Norwegian Air Longhaul
In January, Norwegian Air announced it was abandoning all longhaul routes. The carrier faced harsh challenges long before COVID-19 including engine trouble on its Boeing 787 fleet and the grounding of its 737 MAX fleet and will now focus exclusively on flights within Europe.
Enter Norse Atlantic Airways, a new Norwegian-based start-up founded by a group of investors including Bjorn Kjos, the former CEO of Norwegian Air.
The new carrier plans to launch service later this year and serve North American cities including:
- Los Angeles
- Miami
- New York
from a trio of European cities, including:
- London
- Oslo
- Paris
Sound familiar?
Should U.S. operations be successful, the new carrier plans to add service to Asia.
Sound familiar?
Norse Atlantic Airways plans to use a fleet of 787s for its longhaul operations and has reportedly already secured nine of 12 Dreamliners that Norwegian Air used for its transatlantic service. Majority owner Bjorn Larsen noted:
“We have industry knowledge and have secured modern Dreamliners at very good terms.”
Sound familiar?
Will This Business Model Work?
Shedding the debt and picking up where Norwegian Air left off is not a stupid idea, though longhaul budget carriers have always struggled to make money. The plan to start next winter is a bit perleplxing, as this is a time when leisure demand between North America and Europe has historically been lowest.
On the plus side, Norse Atlantic Airways claims it has already raised $24 million. It also has plenty of time to figure things out and is well-positioned to obtain reasonably-priced aircraft as the world emerges from pandemic.
As a consumer, I am ecstatic about the negative pricing pressure that budget carriers place on legacy airlines. Norwegian Air prompted others to match and consumers won, even when they did not fly Norwegian.
Hopefully cheap one-way fares on Norse Atlantic Airways will prompt others to match.
CONCLUSION
My single flight on Norwegian Air was pleasant enough for premium economy, but it was never going to be my go-to option. Nevertheless, I benefited greatly from the budget airline because it forced others to lower prices in order to compete. It is my hope that Norse Atlantic Airways will prosper by finding the inefficiencies of Norwegian Air and avoiding the 787 engine trouble and pandemic that made a tricky situation visually impossible.
Would you consider flying on Norse Atlantic Airways if it was just like Norwegian Air?
Best of luck to them… But with the next few years poised to be tough, and with larger airlines having fleets too big and having the ability to increase capacity very quickly, and having the ability to feed their hubs for when point to point isn’t enough, I would say this is an even harder time to start Norwegian 2.0…
Nor Air was doomed as they did their best to circumvent and bastardize the open skies treaties to have cheap pilots wages and questionable routes. How do you feel about the cheapest paid Intl pilots having your life in their hands? This “new” upstart is bound to be even worse. Have at it!
You’re saying because they were not highly paid, they were not qualified?
I think the plan to start in winter is actually ideal. It’ll give them a chance to get their operations up to speed before the busy summer season. That load factors will be low is something they can build into their forecasting so that they’re not posting worse than anticipated numbers to investors, all while building brand awareness during the period when planning for summer travel is taking place.
And I anticipate summer 2022 being the busiest leisure travel year in decades.
Reasonable point!
I think winter 2021 will potentially be somewhat busier than usual for a few reasons – lots of pent up demand for travel – e.g. extra cash to do a NYC shopping trip, usually go home to the US every other Xmas from London – no one went this year so potentially lots more would go this year. Millennials (on the UK side anyway) won’t be fully vaccinated until winter so some demand may be delayed. Likely to be heavier VFR / leisure traffic so heavy economy config might suit .
On the London side Gatwick should be willing to give them a very good deal on fees, they’ve lost a huge amount of traffic.
Brexit adds some complexity – Aer Lingus has had to “G” reg the frames they want to operate US flights with from Manchester
Next time fly. Imelda Marcos Airways. !!
Please don’t write things if you don’t know what you are talking about. Many of the pilots working for Norwegian are the most experienced pilots from the most well know airlines in the world. People who had to retire or about to retire and bringing valuable knowledge. Also the pay was above average for pilots. Because the label low cost was put on it, that doesn’t mean it is bad. You could fly for less money on faster flying planes with great services like free internet in really professional operation.
As I made clear, I never questioned for one moment the skill or trust in the pilots of Norwegian. That’s the bottom line.
Looking forward to Norse Atlantic. I flew several times with Norwegian from North America to London and Oslo and was always very happy with the service and prices
If Norse Atlantic does not expand from the original idea shown here of a few US locations to UK-EU and works out the issues ahead with RR Trent 1000 blades and compressor it can do very well. Norwegian expanded so fast that is what doomed them along with the engine issues. In and Out sells hamburgers like many other chains they just do it better and more consistent than any other chain, NA can work if it understands who it really is does not get greedy, by over expanding and become something it is not we shall see if they define that type plan and stick to it.
I am very excited about Norse Atlantic’s undertaking to begin long haul flights between the US and Europe. Norwegian Airlines was my preferred airline for my many trips between the US and London, where my daughter lives.
I loved being able to make one way flights with no financial penalty in addition to the new clean planes with great lighting and high tech screen service. I’m hoping to use Norse Atlantic soon.