Norse Atlantic Airways, the latest airline to try to make low-cost, long-haul air travel an affordable reality for Brits, has just launched direct, non-stop flights from London Gatwick to Cape Town, South Africa, and is offering return flights for as little as £219.
The sold-out inaugural flight departed London Gatwick on a chilly October evening at around 9 pm on Monday and landed just over 11 hours later in South Africa’s affectionately named Mother City.
Passengers on the six-year-old Boeing 787 Dreamliner stepped off the aircraft into the warmth of South Africa’s late spring sunshine with extra money in their pockets thanks to Norse Atlantic’s incredibly low fares on a route that was once dominated by British Airways.
For a sample booking departing London Gatwick on November 20 and returning just over a week later on November 28, I found a basic Economy fare available with Norse Atlantic for just £419 return – less than half the price that British Airways wanted to travel on a similar ticket on the same dates.
In fact, British Airways was quoting a price of £1,243 for a hand luggage-only Economy Class return ticket on one of its older Boeing 777 aircraft, which doesn’t boast jet-lag-busting features like the Dreamliner’s older cabin altitude and higher humidity levels.
Norse Atlantic offers Economy Class and Premium Class (which is similar to a standard Premium Economy seat), although travelers should be aware that, unlike BA’s comparable ticket, the cheapest Economy Light fare doesn’t include a complimentary meal service for the entire 11-hour flight.
I found fares for Norse Atlantic’s Premium Cabin starting as low as £1,033 for a return ticket on the same dates, whereas British Airways is charging £2,267.
Despite the fact that Norse Atlantic managed to sell out its inaugural flight, it looks like there’s still plenty of availability for the rest of the year, although Norse Atlantic is only operating three flights per week for the winter season, compared to BA’s double-daily schedule.
“Cape Town is a beautiful destination, and we’re excited to offer our passengers the chance to visit while enjoying great value and comfort,” commented Bjørn Tore Larsen, Norse Atlantic’s CEO, following the inaugural flight.
“A fully sold-out inaugural flight shows just how much people want affordable, direct long-haul travel,” Larsen continued.
Despite launching this highly anticipated new route, Norse Atlantic is actually pivoting away from operating its own network and is moving towards a business model in which it operates flights on behalf of other airlines as charter or so-called ‘wetlease’ services.
With the summer season coming to an end in the northern hemisphere, Norse Atlantic has already switched half of its operating capacity to wetlease and contract services, and the airline says it’s in talks with several airlines for multi-year contracts that would see its planes become unavailable to operate its own network.
In other words, if you want to take advantage of low-cost, non-stop fares from London to Cape Town, you better take advantage of Norse Atlantic while it’s still flying the route.
Thankfully, for the time being, at least, Virgin Atlantic is also flying non-stop between London Heathrow and Cape Town and is also offering fares not too dissimilar to Norse Atlantic.
