Low-cost airline «Norse Atlantic Airways»

Norse Atlantic Airways is a long-haul, low-cost airline headquartered in Arendal, Norway. It was founded in February 2021 and its project is to connect Europe and North America with a fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners.

Norse Atlantic Airways, better known as Norse, was founded in February 2021 by Bjørn Tore Larsen as majority partner and by Bjorn Kise and Bjørn Kjos as minority partners. The airline was announced in March 2021 along with its plans to start air ticket sales in the fall of 2021 and its operations by December of the same year. Said project also planned an initial fleet of twelve Boeing 787 Dreamliners previously operated by Norwegian Air Shuttle and its subsidiaries, establishing corporate agreements with other Norwegian airlines such as the aforementioned Norwegian Air Shuttle and Flyr, as well as launching the company to operate on the stock market. For the launch of the company, its shareholders placed an initial sum of 150 million US dollars on March 26, 2021. On March 29, 2021, AerCap announced that together with Norse Atlantic they had reached a lease agreement for nine Boeing 787, three of which 787-8 and the remaining six 787-9. Following its debut on the Oslo stock exchange on April 12, 2021, the company raised US$165 million.

During August 2021 the company announced that it obtained leasing rights to a further six Boeing 787-9s from BOC Aviation, increasing its planned fleet from twelve to fifteen aircraft, with deliveries beginning in 2021 and 2022. On August 10, 2021 the company revealed its corporate image as well as the livery of its aircraft. Weeks later, the company decided to postpone the start of its operations, from December 2021 to the summer of 2022, due to the restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

On December 20, 2021, the first Boeing 787-9 was transported to Oslo to make it available to the company and on the 29th of the same month the Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority issued its air operator certificate; The United States Department of Transportation did the same on January 14, 2022 to operate regular services between the United States and Europe.

Finally, on April 29, 2022, the official launch of ticket sales with competitive prices for the market and accessible to all public was announced through the company’s social networks.

Norse is based in Arendal, Norway. At its formation the corporation was 63% owned by its majority partner Bjørn Tore Larsen, 15% owned by Bjørn Kjoss and 12% by Bjørn Kise. Following the success in the financial market, Bjørn Tore Larsen remained the majority shareholder with a 12.3% stake followed by other investors such as DNB SMB (6.7%), Delphi Nordic (6.6%) and Skagen Vekst ( 5.8%).

In March 2021 the company announced Oslo, London, Paris, Berlin, Los Angeles, Fort Lauderdale — Miami, Orlando and New York as its possible initial destinations, and expressed interest in Asian destinations in the future. As of August 2021, the airline had not yet confirmed operations at any airport, however it later transpired that it had signed operating agreements with London-Gatwick Airport. In September 2021, the company applied for permits from the United States Department of Transportation to operate routes between Oslo and the airports of Fort Laudardale, New York and Los Angeles.