Transatlantic budget carrier Norse Atlantic is planning to step up its operations from London Gatwick by adding two further routes from the UK airport to the Florida destinations of Orlando and Fort Lauderdale.
The Oslo-based airline, which secured a UK air operator certificate (AOC) last year, is planning to base around half of its aircraft at Gatwick for summer 2023. Norse Atlantic currently has a fleet of 15 Boeing 787 Dreamliners. Flights to Orlando will start on 25 May with Fort Lauderdale services following on 26 May.
“Further destinations from London Gatwick to the US for the summer 2023 schedule will be revealed by the end of February and will lead to a substantial increase of the airline’s presence in the UK,” said the company in a statement.
Norse Atlantic is also stepping up its operations from continental Europe with flights between Rome Fiumicino and New York JFK airports due to start in June. Rome will become the airline’s fifth European route to New York in addition to services from Gatwick, Oslo, Berlin and Paris.
The airline revealed that it had carried 35,150 passengers in January on a total of 229 flights, although this only represented a load factor of 52 per cent for the month.
Bjorn Tore Larsen, CEO of Norse Atlantic Airways, added: “We expect a strong summer season across our network and especially in the UK as the investment that we have made in that market reaches its full potential.”
Last week, the airline named former United Airlines and WestJet executive Charles Duncan as its president.