Copyright Simple Flying
The northern winter 2025/26 season has started, and many airlines have adjusted their schedules for the months ahead. Long-haul low-cost carrier Norse Atlantic is no exception. The airline has cut and added multiple routes for the season. According to data from aviation analytics provider Cirium, it is scheduled to operate around 1,051 flights between November and February next year, which is about a 19.4% increase compared to 880 during the same period last year. Overall, Norse will offer approximately 57,798 more seats. Simple Flying readers might be aware that the Norwegian carrier has significantly restructured its network in recent months, including reducing its US footprint by nearly half. This comes despite a strong financial performance earlier this year, when Norse reported a 27% increase in passenger revenue, supported by a record 97% load factor and 36% year-over-year passenger growth in the second quarter. Norse Atlanctic Has Shifted Its Focus Towards South East Asia This Winter One of the biggest changes to Norse Atlantic’s network this winter is its expansion into Thailand. The airline has launched five new direct services to the country, connecting the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Norway with Bangkok and Phuket. All flights are operated by the airline’s 338-seat Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners. From the United Kingdom, Norse Atlantic now operates three to five weekly flights between London Gatwick and Bangkok, which began on October 26. The airline also launched daily flights between Manchester and Bangkok on the same day. The service will run through the winter season until the end of March 2026 and marks Manchester’s first-ever direct route to Bangkok. Notably, according to Norse, more than 100,000 passengers travel annually from Manchester to Bangkok via connecting hubs in the Middle East or Asia. The new nonstop link provides an opportunity to capture this strong leisure demand, particularly during the winter months when travelers from the UK seek warmer destinations. Beyond the UK, Norse has also expanded from Northern Europe. On October 22, the airline started twice-weekly flights between Stockholm and Bangkok. It will also launch new weekly services from Stockholm to Phuket on December 4 and from Oslo to Phuket on December 8. Indeed, travel from both the United Kingdom and Sweden to Thailand continues to show strong growth. According to the Tourism Authority of Thailand, between January and September 2025, Thailand welcomed 757,960 visitors from the UK (a 13.66% year-on-year increase) and 145,188 visitors from Sweden as of mid-October, up 8.56% from the same period last year. Additionally, the authority said that forward bookings from the UK are already up 10% for October–December 2025 and 13% for January–March 2026. The Airline Is Offering Only Three US Routes This Winter While Norse has expanded eastward, it has also scaled back a number of its transatlantic services. The airline continues to face challenges in making winter flying to the US financially viable. As previously reported by Simple Flying, the low-cost long-haul carrier has ended several US routes from London Gatwick, including services to Las Vegas and Miami. Despite strong recent load factors, both routes struggled with consistency and profitability. Norse initially launched the London Gatwick–Miami route in 2023, but data from the US Department of Transportation shows that between September 2023 and November 2024, average loads stood at 69%, below the airline’s network-wide average of 75% for US services during the same period. The airline previously confirmed to Simple Flying that loads had exceeded 90% in recent months, even reaching 93% in January 2025. However, intense competition on the London–Miami city pair (from British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, and American Airlines that are collectively offering up to two daily departures) likely affected yields. In addition, Norse has also withdrawn Miami flights from Oslo and Berlin, as well as its service between Paris Charles De Gaulle and New York JFK. The carrier operated its final Paris–New York flight on October 17, 2025, ending a short-lived route that offered just three weekly frequencies and 1,014 total seats per week. Its Berlin–JFK service, launched in August 2022, also comes to an end this winter. DOT data from late 2024 shows good load factors of 86–89% in November and December, though those figures were supported by reduced capacity and lower fares. Besides, the low-cost carrier has discontinued its London Gatwick–Las Vegas route, which launched in September 2024 and ended on March 31, 2025, after just six months of operation. As a result, the carrier’s US network will shrink to three routes this winter. The Airline Has Shifted Its Focus Toward Leasing Clearly, Norse has been reshaping its network focus. Beyond Southeast Asia, the airline is also seeing growing demand for flights to Southern Africa. This winter, it has slightly increased capacity on the London Gatwick–Cape Town route, offering up to six weekly flights operated by its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners. At the same time, Norse’s ongoing route adjustments show the realities of the long-haul, low-cost market. Sustaining such services remains difficult, and the airline appears to be taking a more cautious approach after observing how volatile the segment can be. Thus, it has been shifting more toward ACMI operations, leasing out its widebodies to other airlines to ensure better aircraft utilization and stable revenue. Indeed, this provides a consistent income stream regardless of passenger demand. Notably, Indian low-cost carrier IndiGo has agreed to wet-lease six of Norse’s Boeing 787-9s by the end of the year, equivalent to half of its active fleet.
