Norse Atlantic Adds to the Airline Choices for Rome to New York Travelers

Norse Atlantic launched its next long-haul service on 19th June from Rome Fiumicino to New York JFK, a distance of approximately 4,277 miles (6,884 kilometres). It is the fourth airline to serve the airport pair, and the fifth when Newark is taken into account. It begins just in time for the most significant summer peak.

Rome to JFK via the Norse Atlantic

Rome is not a Norse Atlantic base, but the airline flew the 338-seat Boeing 787-9 LN-FNB, which is 3.9 years old, out of Oslo. Flightradar24 reports that it landed at Fiumicino at 15:38 on 19th June, giving it plenty of time to operate the first flight to New York City.
The summer-seasonal route is scheduled to operate everyday, with all hours being local. Due to a lack of available slots, travellers arrived at JFK very late and left very early:

N0401, 18:55-22:30, Rome-JFK
N0402, 00:30–15:15 JFK–Rome

Greater NYC’s fifth airline
Norse Atlantic would rank as the sixth airline in the market if JFK and Newark were united. Rome’s schedules for the previous 20 years reveal, somewhat unexpectedly, that this is not a record. Data from Cirium show that six airlines were the most numerous in 2008. Air Italy, Alitalia, American, Continental, Delta, and Eurofly were all in operation at that time. United only started in 2012. Although having five carriers is hardly a record, the market is used to it. The most recent year for this was 2019, and it involved Norwegian, American, Alitalia, Delta, and United.

Replacing Norwegian with Norse Atlantic
Norse Atlantic is a result of Norwegian’s discontinuation of long-distance service. Norwegian initially flew from Rome to Newark from November 2017 to October 2019 before relocating to JFK, most likely due to more available slots. Just as the pandemic began to spread, it came to an end in March 2020. With an average seat load factor (SLF) of 83%, Norwegian carried 378,856 roundtrip passengers between Rome and Newark/JFK, according to data analysis from the US Department of Transportation. Due to Norwegian’s year-round operations, the winter season, which saw less than 75% SLFs, naturally resulted in lower average prices. Naturally, there were 90%+ SLFs, stronger demand, and considerably better price throughout the crucial summer months. It makes sense that Norse Atlantic only operates in the summer.

Now 11 flights per day
Norse Atlantic joins American, Delta, ITA Airways, and United in offering an impressive 11 daily services – the most ever – from 6th July through 14th August before reducing that number to 10. Flights drop to six per day on October 29 as carriers transition to winter schedules. The analysis of the 11 daily flights reveals that Delta operates triple daily (the highest to date), ITA operates triple daily, American operates double daily (the highest to date), United operates double daily (first seen in 2022), and now Norse has added a new daily route.