Charter flights could make up as much as half of the business next winter for Norse Atlantic (United Kingdom) (Z0, London Gatwick) as its low-cost long-haul transatlantic parent Norse Atlantic Airways (N0, Oslo Gardermoen) adapts its company-wide business model to maximise the use of its aircraft.
In an interview with the UK's Travel Weekly, founder and CEO Bjørn Tore Larsen revealed that "charters could be 50% of our business in winter and could even be a little more than that as we grow." This followed a statement from Norse Atlantic Airways last month in which Larsen explained that securing additional longer-term winter charter contracts now formed part of the company's "opportunistic and flexible business model".
From December 18, 2024, to April 1, 2025, for example, Norse Atlantic Airways will operate weekly charters on behalf of the Italian tour operator Alpitour World and its subsidiary Neos Air with one B787-9 based at Milan Malpensa. This will include charters to Zanzibar (Tanzania), Mombasa (Kenya), La Romana International (Dominican Republic), Montego Bay (Jamaica), Antananarivo (Madagascar), and Dubai International (UAE). Norse has also clinched a charter contract for the Winter 2024/25 season with P&O Cruises, which will see it alternate weekly flights from Manchester International and London Gatwick to Antigua and Bridgetown (Barbados) between November 2024 and March 2025.
Larsen said the airline would continue to focus on securing additional longer-term winter charter contracts and operating its own core summer routes when travel demand is at its highest. On July 2, at the start of the 2024 summer season, the airline reported 85% load factors, an increase of 2% year-on-year, as Norse Atlantic ramped up flying on its own network while operating no charters. In total, the airline carried 178,042 passengers across 620 scheduled flights in June; in May, its traffic still included 55 charters.
Its transatlantic schedule includes twice-daily flights to New York JFK, daily services to Orlando International and Miami International, and 6x weekly to Los Angeles International. It adds 3x weekly flights to Las Vegas Harry Reid in September. The airline will also serve Bangkok Suvarnabhumi from Oslo between September and November. European destinations include Athens, Berlin Brandenburg International, Paris CDG, and Rome Fiumicino. On October 28, the carrier enters the African market with direct flights to Cape Town International.
According to the ch-aviation fleets module, Norse Atlantic's fleet comprises twelve B787-9s, all currently in active service, of which seven are under the Norwegian AOC and five are under the UK AOC. Last month, the company announced an update about potential investments in which "one strategic investment option, in an advanced stage of discussions, had ended with no formal agreement reached."
