Norse Atlantic: high ambitions but still many boxes to tick

It hasn’t flown a single mile, hasn’t had a passenger on board, has no traffic rights, and no financial track record. Yet, there is much talk about Norway’s newest start-up long-haul low-cost airline Norse Atlantic Airways AS since it has been established on February 1. If only that was for the bravery of launching a new long-haul airline in the midst of a pandemic at a time when the outlook for this segment is far from rosy. We have a look at Norse’s plans and ambitions.

First some context: Norse Atlantic is jumping into the void that’s left by Norwegian. On January 14, Norwegian announced that its restructuring plan will concentrate on a domestic and European network and ditches the low-cost long-haul network which won its reputation in the past eight years. Within two weeks, founder Bjorn Tore Larsen responded by setting up a modest management team to create Norse Atlantic on February 1.