The new low-cost long-haul Norwegian airline, Norse Atlantic Airways, has announced plans to fly between Europe and the United States from early 2022, as it aims to fill Norwegian leaves long-distance routes.
Norse was founded in March by a veteran of the Norwegian aviation industry, initially flying from Oslo, London and Paris to New York, Los Angeles and Fort Lauderdale.
The airline’s CEO Bjørn Tore Larsen stated that the airline intends to transfer its entire fleet of 15 Boeing 787 Dreamliners (Viking-style) by the summer of 2022. Brand) put into use.
The airline plans to start recruiting pilots and crew by the end of 2021, and is expected to have approximately 1,600 employees by next summer, all of whom will be directly employed.
Norse initially hoped to take off at the end of 2021, but Larsen said that the slower-than-expected pace of lifting the coronavirus travel restrictions on long-distance routes means that the airline’s goal is to be operational by the second quarter of 2022 at the latest.
“We don’t want to start too early. It doesn’t make sense to fly around empty planes. Having said that, we have a very solid cash position, so if we need to, we can withstand a long wait,” Larsen revealed. The airline logo inspired by the Viking long ship told reporters when.
The airline expects passenger demand to resume in the spring of 2022 and said it hopes to sell 10,000 tickets a day after all its fleet is operational. Tickets will go on sale three months before the first flight.
Norse’s leased aircraft was previously operated by Norwegian Airways, and until it was announced in January that it had almost collapsed during the pandemic, it was scaling back to provide only short-haul European flights and Norwegian domestic routes.
The crossover between compatriots did not end there. Norse’s CEO and majority shareholder Larsen is the co-founder of OSM Aviation, which directly employs Norwegian crews and the airline owns half of the shares.
At the same time, the founder and Former CEO of Norway, Bjørn Kjos, also a shareholder of the carrier, the carrier Debut on the Oslo Stock Market In April.
Norse insists that it can succeed elsewhere, Including Norwegian, Failed. Larson said: “We will be the only low-cost long-haul airline across the Atlantic. This is our position, and we will do nothing other than that.”
“Our typical traveler is not necessarily a typical businessman from A to B. To a greater extent, a family of four goes to Florida for a long vacation, or to New York for a week, or visits friends and family, students. So we will make sure More people than now can afford to travel.”
Airlines were the hardest hit by the international travel downturn during the pandemic, unlike other sectors of the British economy. Air travel Still restricted by the coronavirus.
Nonetheless, Norse is optimistic that as restrictions are relaxed, travel demand is rebounding, and said that potential passengers will contact it regularly to ask when airlines will start flying.
