Norway's Norse Atlantic shifts focus to more ACMI, charter

Norse Atlantic Airways (N0, Oslo Gardermoen) has announced it is revising its business strategy by allocating at least half of its fleet capacity to ACMIs and charter services from the fourth quarter and throughout the IATA winter season.In a statement announcing its second quarter results for 2024, the Norwegian airline said the third quarter was being dominated by its own flying, but the pivot to more ACMIs and charters was aimed at greater profitability and better risk management during the upcoming European winter. This comes after the airline recorded a 115% fall in revenue per passenger in the second quarter on the back of lower industry fares. The revenue slump came despite a 105% rise in available seat kilometres, an 89% rise in flight frequencies, 99% growth in passengers, and load factors improving to 82% compared to the second quarter of 2023.
"Following a strong transatlantic market in Summer 2023, many airlines increased capacity for 2024, leading to the softening of fares and impacting all carriers serving that market," the airline explained.
Its revised business plan will see more of Norse Atlantic's fleet’s capacity and revenue locked into longer-term contracts, leaving the carrier with lower market risk and a significant cost reduction in the future. Founder and CEO Bjorn Tore Larsen said Norse Atlantic was negotiating with several airlines regarding multi-year contracts for fleet allocation, some of which would have an impact from the end of 2024 if they materialise. He said more details would be disclosed in autumn 2024.
Meanwhile, he said, the airline has agreed in principle to commercial terms with one of its lessors to streamline its fleet by redelivering three B787-8 widebodies in 2024, which will result in Norse Atlantic operating a uniform fleet of B787-9s.
"The three B787-8s have the shortest lease term remaining and have been subleased by the company. The agreement will result in Norse having a uniform, flexible, and cost-efficient fleet of B787-9 aircraft only. The transaction is expected to result in a significant accounting gain. Completion of the early redelivery is subject to the completion of formal documentation and execution of the aircraft redeliveries," he elaborated.
From the end of May, Norse Atlantic increased its fleet of own-operated aircraft from 10 to 12 after it took delivery of two B787-9s from sublease as planned, representing a capacity growth of 20%. This created further economies of scale across the business and helped reduce unit cost in the second quarter, it said. The airline now expects to see a further decrease in the cost of available seat kilometres (CASK) in the third quarter.
According to the ch-aviation fleets module, the Norse Atlantic fleet includes twelve B787-9s, of which seven are under its Norwegian AOC and five under its UK AOC, Norse Atlantic (United Kingdom) (Z0, London Gatwick). The aircraft are on operating leases from BOC Aviation and AerCap, respectively. The carrier serves transatlantic flights between Europe (Oslo Gardermoen, Athens, Berlin Brandenburg International, London Heathrow, Paris CDG, and Rome Fiumicino) and the United States (New York JFK, Los Angeles International, Miami International, Las Vegas Harry Reid), Bangkok Suvarnabhumi (Thailand), and Cape Town International (South Africa).