Startup long-haul, low-cost carrier Norse Atlantic received its first B787-9 at Oslo Gardemoen on December 20th, the next stage of its launch. The amount of work taken to get to this stage should not be underestimated. Expect flights to go on sale in the coming weeks.
Norse Atlantic welcomes its first B787
At 11:04 on December 20th, OE-LNY landed at Oslo Gardemoen, having flown from Warsaw, where it had undergone maintenance. So that all Norse employees and the wider public could participate, the arrival was also streamed live.
Named Rondane, after the oldest national park in Norway known for large numbers of reindeer, OH-LNY has been on the Austrian register since June due to being returned to lessor, ch-aviation.com shows. However, it will join the Norwegian register as LN-RNB. This specific aircraft was delivered to Norwegian in July 2019 as SE-RXY and is owned by BOC Aviation.
Norse Atlantic has 15 B787s on order, comprising 12 B787-9s and three smaller -8s. At least ten aircraft have now been painted, and it is believed that the first tranche of deliveries will continue until April, with aircraft initially flying to Oslo. Speaking at the arrival of 'LNY, Bjørn Tore Larsen, CEO and founder of Norse Atlantic, said:
"The delivery of our first Dreamliner marks an important milestone for us at Team Norse as it brings us one step closer to the launch of attractive and affordable transatlantic flights."
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First US flights in spring or summer?
In September, Norse disclosed that its initial three routes would be from Oslo to Fort Lauderdale (for greater Miami), Ontario (Los Angeles), and Stewart (New York). They're based on the gap left by Norwegian, which scrapped long-haul flying to concentrate on its core and successful short-haul markets.
While South Florida, New York, Los Angeles aren't surprising, that they involve secondary airports is less obvious. After all, Norwegian used to serve secondary US airports from across Europe but abandoned it. They were cheaper, had less congestion, enabled quicker turnarounds, and were more likely to offer significant incentives, but primary airports meant much higher fares.
Norse has said that it expects flights to begin in the spring, but time is ticking as flights aren't yet on sale. Last week, Iceland's new entrant PLAY put on sale Baltimore and Boston, its initial US routes. They'll begin in April and May. Whether Norse starts in spring or summer, expect flights to go on sale soon.
What's happening with London?
While Norse will likely serve London using Gatwick, as the airport's Chief Commercial Officer recently told the author, it isn't yet certain. It hasn't received slots at the airport, which was overwhelmingly Norwegian's main long-haul base, so Norse applied for and received slots for Stansted. Expect it to end up flying from Gatwick.
What do you make of Norse's first aircraft delivery? Let us know in the comments.