Norse Atlantic Airways has confirmed that six of its Boeing 787-9 remain grounded as airspace restrictions around the Middle East have affected IndiGo’s planned operations with the wet leased widebody aircraft from India to European destinations.
As part of its publication of its monthly results, Norse said that, while six 787-9s remain with IndiGo, the Indian low-cost carrier, the “operation is temporarily suspended” as of March 4 due to airspace restrictions across the Middle East.
“Norse is cooperating with Indigo to find alternative routes to resume flights as soon as possible. There are no changes to agreed minimum block hours threshold and Norse continues to receive payments according to agreement.”
However, Norse noted that following the breakout of the war in Iran, demand for tickets and cargo services on its own network’s flights between Europe and Thailand, and Cape Town International Airport (CPT) has increased, resulting in higher revenue.
Eivind Roald, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Norse, affirmed that the war has not impacted the airline’s forward-looking booking trends.
“Flights in Norse’s own network between Europe and Thailand continues to operate via a northern air traffic corridor unaffected by current regional flight restrictions imposed due to the conflict in the Middle East.”
Transatlantic and charter flights to other regions across the world also remain unaffected, Norse added.
In February, Norse carried 54% more passengers year-on-year (YoY), with its average load factors being 98%. Unit revenue on its own network was up 25% YoY, even with capacity increasing by 35%.
Total capacity, measured in available seat kilometers (ASKs), which includes its own network and aircraft, crew, maintenance, and insurance (ACMI) operations, increased by 78% YoY.
However, punctuality, or flights that have arrived 15 minutes within their scheduled arrival time, is down 17 percentage points compared to February 2025, and is now at 53%.
When the carrier reported its 2025 results on February 26, Norse’s guidance read that it expects a profit before tax of between $20 million and $40 million in 2026, reflecting “the planned flight program, ticket sales to date, continuous optimization of pricing and load in own network, ongoing and new cost initiatives, and estimated fuel costs based on the Brent crude oil price average year-to-date and forward curve.”
That guidance might not have aged well, since the war in Iran has resulted in a substantial increase in jet fuel prices.
“Currently, Norse [has] no fuel hedging arrangements in place and is fully exposed to jet fuel price fluctuations.”
