A new Norwegian low-cost transatlantic carrier is set to launch its Viking-themed services from Dublin to the US in the coming months.
orse Atlantic Airways, which refers to its new fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft from Irish lessor Aercap as ‘longships’, has secured 38 weekly slots at Dublin airport for the upcoming winter season.
The slot will allow the new carrier, which offers $115 (€109) one-way return flights from Europe to the states, to fly 19 services in and out of Dublin.
Currently, the airline operates from Oslo, London Gatwick and Berlin and serves New York’s JFK Airport, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and Los Angeles.
“We are very pleased to have secured slots at Dublin airport,” said an airline spokesperson when contacted. Sunday Independent. “The resilience of our network during our start-up phase is paramount to ensure that we are seizing commercially successful opportunities and avenues. We will announce more details in due course.”
Norse is owned by Norwegian shipping magnate and qualified pilot Björn Torre Larsson.
He started out as a travel agent but founded Norwegian-listed shipping
Giant OSM in 1989.
Larsen has chosen to launch the new airline, which made its inaugural flight from Oslo to New York last week, at a difficult time in the region when many other airlines have found themselves recovering from prolonged grounding during the pandemic. And now the business rush which is putting pressure on the resources of the employees.
Larsson has insisted that he was very convinced that the Norse Atlantic model was different from Norwegian, the Irish-registered transatlantic carrier that attempted to shake up the market long-haul before going bankrupt.
It has since relaunched with a much larger back, Nordic-area focused route network as it attempts to refocus and rebuild its business.
“I don’t think you can compare us,” Larsson said on Nation World News when asked why Norse would succeed where Norwegian failed.
“We’re a very different airline, we’re brand new with a new concept. We only fly long flights. We don’t have any of the complications of hub-and-spoke carriers. We’re very focused on keeping costs down.”
“We have very modern yet very cost competitive aircraft. More importantly, we have a lot of people who want to join us and a lot of those people have already joined.”
