Less than a week before its maiden flight is due to depart, Norse Atlantic Airways (N0, Oslo Gardermoen) has said it will fly to two destinations in the United States from Berlin Brandenburg International starting in mid-August, making the German capital the low-cost long-haul specialist's third European gateway after Oslo Gardermoen and London Gatwick.
The Norwegian start-up will launch its flight operations by linking Oslo and New York JFK on June 14, following that with Oslo to Fort Lauderdale International, Los Angeles International, and Orlando International. On August 12, it will open a route between Gatwick and JFK, and on the same day start a temporary Oslo-Gatwick connection until the end of October.
Norse Atlantic Airways has also previously voiced plans to establish routes from one of the airports serving Paris, but nothing specific has since emanated from the airline on this issue. Now, however, it says Berlin will be on the route map - to JFK 7x weekly from August 17 and to Los Angeles 3x weekly from August 19.
The airline already has a fleet of nine leased B787-9s to hand, the ch-aviation fleets module shows, with a tenth -9 and one B787-8 waiting to be delivered. All of the Dreamliners were previously part of the once-bloated fleets of Norwegian (Oslo Gardermoen) and its former subsidiaries Norwegian UK or Norwegian Air Sweden.
According to the ch-aviation capacities module, United Airlines (UA, Chicago O'Hare) is currently the only company flying between Berlin and New York, operating daily to New York Newark, while Berlin-Los Angeles is unserviced. Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt International) operates 26 routes from Germany to the US - but none of them from Berlin.
"For far too long, the vibrant and culturally diverse city of Berlin has been subjected to poor direct transatlantic connectivity," said Norse Atlantic Airways CEO Bjorn Tore Larsen. "These two new routes will provide a direct and cost effective option, saving both money and time for local and international businesses when choosing to travel to and from the US or taking advantage of our cargo services."
