Perhaps the much-maligned BER will become a “real” airport after all – with long-distance connections all over the world and all over the world. In any case, there will be a small one in this direction. It is made by the Norwegian low-cost airline Norse Atlantic Airways. From Wednesday evening it will be launched with three transatlantic connections – New York, Los Angeles and soon Florida will be accessible non-stop from Berlin without the hassle of changing trains!
The first flight to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York was scheduled to start on Wednesday evening (August 17). The first connection to Los Angeles is scheduled for Friday. And from December 7, the young company plans to offer three flights a week to Fort Lauderdale in Florida, as Norse boss Bjørn Tore Larsen said in Schönefeld on Wednesday.
Young Airline Norse is really making steam at BER
“Berlin will be our new home for us,” said Larsen. Norse becomes the largest provider of long-haul flights at BER. In Schönefeld, the company primarily competes with United Airlines. The US airline has also been flying from BER to New York to Newark Airport since March.
Norse Atlantic was founded last year and, according to CEO Larsen, owns 15 aircraft – all Boeing 787s, also known as Dreamliners. They are registered like the company itself in Oslo.
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Starting an airline in these particularly difficult times is “almost insane,” Larsen said. But the company was able to buy the aircraft comparatively cheaply during the Corona crisis. Norse has also benefited from the downsizing in aviation during the pandemic and has been able to attract many new employees. Norse wants to be profitable in the coming year.
Business associations in particular repeatedly criticize the lack of long-distance connections at BER. With Norse, three are added to the USA in one fell swoop. There are other direct long-haul connections at BER to Singapore, Doha and in winter to Dubai. Last Friday, the Chinese airline Hainan Airlines also included a connection between BER and Beijing in its program for the first time. Until the beginning of the Corona crisis, Hainan flew via what was then Tegel Airport.