By Ezra Gollan
Norse Atlantic Announces First Ultra Low Fare Routes to the United States
Norwegian startup Norse Atlantic has revealed its first 4 transatlantic routes to be launched later this year. The airline plans to serve New York, Los Angeles, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando with its Boeing 787 aircraft. Beginning June 14, 2022, Norse flight 01 will depart Oslo Gardermoen Airport for New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport at 7:50 pm local time arriving in New York just over 8 hours later at 10 pm local time.
Norse flight 02 is scheduled to depart JFK at 11:55 pm local time and arrive in Oslo the next day at 1:30 pm local time after roughly 7 and a half hours in the air. The Oslo-New York sector will operate on a twice-weekly basis until July 4 when it will pick up to once daily to meet forecasted summer demand. Norse will begin serving Fort Lauderdale on June 18th with twice-weekly service for the initial week followed by 3 times weekly. Service to Orlando will begin on July 5 and is scheduled to make the trip 3 times a week with no changes planned.
Norse’s service to Los Angeles is just the tip of the iceberg for the abnormal operation plans that the airline has publicized. Departing Oslo at 6:30 in the morning, the flight arrives in Los Angeles just after 8:30 am local time with a flight time of just over 11 hours. The aircraft will then remain on the ground at LAX until 1:30 pm the following day at which point it will depart back to Oslo to arrive at Gardermoen Airport at 9 am local time.
Norse’s CEO Bjorn Tore Larson said in a press release: “The introduction of affordable Norse Atlantic Airways point-to-point flights between Europe and the United States, will benefit both local tourism and businesses. Not only are we directly investing in the countries that we operate by employing local staff we are also supporting job creation across the wider tourism and service industry” With some fares as low as $114 USD one way, but Norse is also launching these routes to the US from Oslo at rates that haven’t been seen in years. Prices for the upcoming summer season are higher than ever and Norse could prove to be an excellent option for those looking to reach Oslo and the rest of Europe very inexpensively.
The airports that Norse plans to operate those flights to, however, are surprising given the carrier’s ultra-low fares over the Atlantic. The few, now no longer ultra-low-cost transatlantic routes often operated from secondary airports in order to keep prices to a minimum. Norwegian Air Shuttle’s New York City to Bergen, Norway route flew out of Stewart Airport some 70 or so miles north of New York City. When Norse originally applied to serve the United States, it requested permission to fly to Ontario, California, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Newburgh, New York. These are all secondary cities just outside of larger primary cities, in this case, Los Angeles, Miami and New York City. Norse opted not to use these secondary airports with the exception of Fort Lauderdale and instead chose to fly from LAX and JFK. It is likely that Norse can make its presence more well-known here as opposed to secondary hubs far from most passengers’ destinations.
The airline has also said it has plans to announce routes from London and Paris to the United States soon along with new US destinations.
Ezra Gollan is a student, photographer and aviation enthusiast based in New York, New York. He has spent over half a decade around New York City’s airports as a photographer.
