Norse Atlantic said it will respond more quickly to market trends in future as it redefines itself as an ‘airline on demand’.
The airline debuted in the UK with transatlantic flights and has since dropped some US routes but added services from the UK to Bangkok and Cape Town.
It also provides charter flights for P&O Cruises to the Caribbean, and it wet-leases some of its aircraft to Indian low-cost carrier IndiGo.
Speaking as the carrier announced it turned around a fourth-quarter loss last year into a $56.5 million pre-tax profit in the final quarter of this financial year, CEO Eivind Roald said 2026 ‘marks a new chapter’ for the airline as it completes its transition to a dual charter and scheduled airline.
He said this model reduced risk, provided more stable revenue, higher flexibility and increased exposure to high-demand routes.
“Our ambition is clear: to provide a market-leading affordable long-haul travel product,” added Eivind. “A great customer experience is the foundation for delivering strong margin expansion on our low-cost platform with a balanced risk profile and accelerating shareholder value creation.”
Eivind said that since taking over as CEO last November, his focus had been on implementing the new business model and ‘on operational simplification to improve speed and responsiveness to market demand’.
“This includes adjusting our network design to better handle irregularities and investing in technology and capabilities to efficiently deliver more consistent customer experience,” he added.
“We have taken decisive steps to create a more focused own network targeting long-haul routes with strong demand and high fare potential. The ‘winter sun’ programme between Europe and Asia and Africa illustrates this disciplined network high-grading strategy.”
He described the early results as ‘encouraging’, with higher ticket prices and cargo revenue translating into a 6% increase in network unit revenue.
“Norse has a solid foundation for success with highly favourable long-term aircraft leases, an attractive product yielding 96% load factor for 2025 and high customer ratings for our service-minded crew,” added Eivind.
“The strong improvements in recent months confirm that people are willing to pay more for our product on the right routes. Our low-cost operations control centre in Riga is ready to scale as we optimise the route mix for higher profitability. The winter programme to Thailand is a great example of how this high grading creates value. We will accelerate commercial efforts to increase prices and ancillary revenue, while also maximising our cargo potential.
“We have taken measures to balance aircraft utilisation to increase predictability and avoid unnecessary cancellations due to maintenance requirements. We aim to become significantly more efficient in customer handling when such irregularities occur.
“This is part of redefining Norse as an ‘airline on demand’, responding more quickly to changes in market trends and demand.
“We will be flexible and offer charters/ACMI (wet-leases) if that is the most profitable option and we will open and close routes more quickly to maximise profitability.
“Further, we are strengthening our brand and product positioning to increase our total yield as part of our intensified focus on revenue management.”
