Budget carrier Norse Atlantic, set up by former staff of Norwegian Air, has resurrected more of the transatlantic routes abandoned by its predecessor three years ago when it quit flying to the US as Covid took grip.
Norse, which uses several aircraft from Norwegian’s former fleet, last week revealed Orlando and Fort Lauderdale from Gatwick, adding to its current New York service. This week it confirmed Washington Dulles, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston from London’s second main airport, where it will station half its fleet this summer.
Norse is not quite an identical twin to Norwegian; for one thing, the start-up is ambitiously attempting to link the US and UK capitals, something Norwegian never did. It may have trouble making this work, Washington is not really a leisure route and those travelling for business may prefer to use a full-service carrier from Heathrow, where British Airways and United ply the route.
Norse, unlike Norwegian, is sticking to primary airports from the start. Norwegian had first served the San Francisco area from nearby Oakland airport, which it stuck at for three years before switching to the city’s main airport. It even, for one year, prompted BA to launch flights to Oakland.
Norse’s initial route filings suggested it may have opted for Oakland and California’s Ontario airport, 40 miles from Los Angeles, but it has gone mainstream instead.
On this side of the Atlantic, Norse can perhaps count on an easier ride than when its predecessor began operating. Virgin Atlantic has moved to Heathrow, likely removing any future threat from it and Norse will have no competition on three of its four latest routes.
BA, JetBlue and, from April, Delta, will slug it out against Norse to JFK, but apart from that, only Orlando (BA again) and JetBlue (Boston) hold competition. Fort Lauderdale is a JetBlue focus airport, but any direct link with this and the UK is surely way off.
So Norse may have some breathing space. Let’s hope so; Norwegian was able to fall back onto its short-haul routes when its US venture went awry, but Norse has put all its bets on transatlantic.
Gary Noakes is senior contributor and analyst at TTG
