Norse Atlantic launches Cape Town flights from Gatwick – but drops Caribbean routes

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• John G says:

  19 Apr19 April 08:39

  I look forward to the article later in the year announcing Norse’s next new route with the words at the end “Norse has quietly dropped it’s route to Cape Town”. Book with extreme caution I’d say, like every new route they launch!

  • Steve says:

    19 Apr19 April 09:35

    100% this.

  • vlcnc says:

    19 Apr19 April 10:51

    Lol absolutely! Don’t count on this sticking.

  • SBIre says:

    19 Apr19 April 11:21

    Ha – yep!

  • Londonsteve says:

    20 Apr20 April 15:47

    I disagree, I think it’ll be very successful. There’s a large untapped demand for more budget orientated travellers seeking to holiday in SA but put off by high flight prices from Europe. In fact, I think they’ll even manage to get passengers self transferring at Gatwick from the EU. I heard about the route before the article on HfP from an American living in Budapest who plans to fly Norse on the route, I think that tells you something.

    Finally, Norse are targeting routes that appeal to the right market considering their market positioning and the frequencies they can offer. Nobody that’s financially constrained wants to fly to Barbados in winter high season.

    • Rob says:

      20 Apr20 April 17:37

      Unless you are planning to travel with no baggage, don’t plan to eat for 12 hours and are happy with a random middle seat, your costs are going up sharply.

      I had a look at Premium to New York today. It’s £60 to select a seat, each way, reduced to £35 if you voluntarily take a middle seat. VS is free.

• jeremy i says:

  19 Apr19 April 08:43

  good to see more competition on this route and i hope it does well. the Joburg flights are always so full and most tourists seem to connect to CPT anyway.

• louie says:

  19 Apr19 April 08:53

  Where does that leave people with tickets to Montego Bay or Barbados?

  • Richie says:

    19 Apr19 April 08:56

    Reg UK261 Art. 8 applies, including re-routing, but Norse are highly likely just to refund.

  • Rob says:

    19 Apr19 April 08:57

    In theory Norse has to rebook them although likely it will try to get away with just offering refunds.

• john says:

  19 Apr19 April 09:53

  “There is also no overnight curfew at Gatwick, meaning that the aircraft could still operate if the departure from Cape Town was delayed by a couple of hours.”

  I wonder why BA don’t divert more to LGW if they are going to miss the curfew. Presumably all the taxi’s would be cheaper than paying for hotels at the origin and compensation.

  • Chabuddy Geezy says:

    19 Apr19 April 10:16

    While there is a curfew at Heathrow, planes still land after the deadline if they are delayed. I think there is cap on how many times you can breach the curfew.

• Matarredonda says:

  19 Apr19 April 10:16

  Saw this yesterday and again why ate they going h2h with two long established airlines?
  Surely they would be better flying to, for resample Durban?

  • SamG says:

    19 Apr19 April 11:11

    There is heaps of demand for Cape Town – direct flights are very expensive and most people I know go indirect due to cost reasons. Durban lacks holiday demand and would struggle to fill the premium cabin I think

    • Michael Jennings says:

      19 Apr19 April 12:23

      There’s lots of demand from London to South Africa in general, but there are no South African airlines flying the routes – just BA and Virgin Atlantic. There is plenty of market for at least one more player.

    • signol says:

      19 Apr19 April 15:10

      BA managed fine before the pandemic to operate Durban 3x week (with a daytime northbound). Loads of VFR traffic and mounting inbound tourism. It’s a matter of time (fingers crossed!) before they reinstate.

• SamG says:

  19 Apr19 April 11:09

  I believe P&O still haven’t announced who is doing some of their Caribbean flying that Maleth-Aero did this year. The Norse product with it’s premium cabin and IFE would be perfect for this so I’d be quite surprised if they didn’t pick up some of this work

  • roberto says:

    19 Apr19 April 12:41

    Tui have been confirmed for Barbados & Antigua..

    • SamG says:

      19 Apr19 April 14:14

      They usually use TUI and another, not sure TUI has the capacity to carry everyone!

• TravelsWithMyHP says:

  19 Apr19 April 11:11

  As someone who varies between Business and Premium Economy flights depending on route/carrier/time of day/available cash or points I have often been tempted to try the PE offering on Norse but have always been put off by this constant adding and withdrawing of routes. Surely they just need to offer a stable set of destinations that passengers can actually believe in. This constant route churn will keep me away for some time to come.

  • SammyJ says:

    19 Apr19 April 14:08

    Same here. In the various Orlando holiday groups the question from those with no knowledge of airlines pops up almost daily – ‘what are Norse like? They’re much cheaper but I’ve never heard of them’. And the answer is always the same – no worse than any other, nice clean modern aircraft, charges for extras, but very unreliable with their schedules, and will cancel routes at the drop of a hat.
    The leisure market they’re trying to attract want to fly with them and are happy with the price, but when they’re booking their once-in-a-lifetime Florida/Vegas/NY holiday they want to know that it’s not going to be cancelled a month later.

    They could make a fortune by releasing their flights for sale way beyond the 11-12mths too. The number of people who book these trips 2 years ahead and pay a huge premium for doing so is absolutely mental!

    • The Savage Squirrel says:

      19 Apr19 April 18:13

      Very true re: the two year tickets for Disney etc … and for a cash-strapped airline, the cashflow benefit is enormous too. At 2 years it basically counts as a free financing option!

• Bernard says:

  19 Apr19 April 12:11

  Nothing weird about a near midday departure from CT. Works very nicely for check out following after hotel breakfast. Avoid rush hour traffic that evening BA departures dump you in too.
  After 9am its a 20/5 min uber ride from downtown to CT airport. Makes this service look very attractive.
  PS why does HFP understand that if you can earn a ticket price 50% higher than Michael Winner island destinations, for a couple hours of extra flight, why would n’t you?

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