Norse, which plans to fly to New York, Fort Lauderdale and California, has agreed to transfer four Boeing 787s to Spain’s Air Europa for 18 months. The deal leaves the start-up with a fleet of 11.

Norse chief executive Bjorn Tore Larsen said: “This sublease agreement with Air Europa provides a compelling opportunity to generate positive cash flow from aircraft that we were not planning to fully utilise in our start-up phase.”

He added the agreement “strengthens our already solid financial position” and was aligned with its strategy of “cautiously entering the market and ramping up based on customer demand”.

Norse received final permission to fly transatlantic from the US Department of Transportation this week. It had planned to launch services in April but postponed the launch due to the pandemic.

The carrier said it would put tickets on sale for its first flights “later this month”, with the inaugural departure from Oslo in June, but did not specify when flights from the UK would begin.

“The route network will be announced when ticket sales are launched,” it said.