Norse Atlantic Airways has made a number of reductions to its transatlantic route network for this winter.
Some of the affected routes had been launched barely two months ago and now travellers find they have been removed for the winter season at least.
Although Norse has yet to inform UK media of the changes, information has been posted in the US.
Certainly when I checked inventory in previous days it had been removed, or else I was greeted with the wording “The stations you selected are not valid” or flights were still displayed (although the inventory had not been updated).
Ishrion Aviation reports that flights to Los Angeles from Berlin and Oslo will be suspended from mid-October, those from Oslo to New York will be reduced from daily to thrice weekly effective end October, and those from Oslo to Fort Lauderdale will be cut from three times weekly to twice weekly from October 15 (rather than October 29).
Last month Norse issued a financial statement saying it was finding the transatlantic market “challenging” and that it had begun to “evaluate all routes, including potentially decreasing its programme in line with demand”.
Norse also stated that its August load factor had fallen from 80+ per cent (when its first routes were launched a couple of months earlier) to 69 per cent.
August is the peak month for transatlantic travel. It’s a month when budget airlines would expect to have a load factor of over 90 per cent.
At time of writing the winter Norse Atlantic network consists of these four routes:
- London Gatwick to Oslo daily service
- London Gatwick to New York JFK daily service
- Berlin to New York JFK three times a week
- Berlin to Fort Lauderdale three times a week
However further changes cannot be ruled out.
Subscribers to Business Traveller can read Alex’s recent feature looking at the challenges facing low-cost long-haul carriers.
