Norse Atlantic's new London Gatwick-Cape Town link in northern winter will help reduce summer skew
Norse Atlantic is to launch a three times weekly route from London Gatwick to Cape Town at the start of northern winter 2024/2025, deploying Boeing 787-9 aircraft.
The UK-South Africa market, a duopoly between British Airways (BA) and Virgin Atlantic Airways since South African Airways (SAA) withdrew at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, will once more experience three-way competition.
Norse Atlantic's entry provides fresh dynamism in a market whose recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic has been weighed down by SAA's exit and lower capacity offered by BA.
For Norse Atlantic, Gatwick-Cape Town will be only its second route outside its core North Atlantic market. The service will be operated by its Gatwick-based subsidiary Norse Atlantic UK, which is scheduled to fly more seats than the parent airline in 2024.
It will help a little in smoothing out the group's heavy reliance on the summer for its scheduled operations.