SAS & Norwegian Air set to take market share in Scandinavia-US market as United and Delta pull out

In late Aug-2015, Norwegian signed an agreement for two additional Boeing 787-9 orders. This brings its total on order for the variant to 11, to add to the eight 787-8 aircraft already in its wide body fleet. Its long haul network is strongly skewed towards the US, with five destinations and eight routes, versus one destination (Bangkok) and three routes in the rest of the world. In spite of the delay in receiving a US foreign carrier permit for its Ireland-based subsidiary Norwegian Air International, its long haul focus looks set to remain in the US. Indeed, this may now be because of the delay.

Meanwhile, SAS remains the largest carrier between Scandinavia and the US and has actually grown its North Atlantic network since Norwegian's entry in 2013. The losers on Scandinavia-US have been United and Delta, a situation highlighted by United's recent decision to join Delta in serving this market on a seasonal summer basis only. Both SAS and Norwegian plan new US routes from Scandinavia in what has become a near duopoly with clearly differentiated participants.