BUSINESS NEWS


Norse Atlantic chief replaced by ex-SAS executive


The founder and chief executive of Norse Atlantic Airways, Bjørn Tore Larsen, stood down last week to be immediately replaced by a former senior executive at SAS Scandinavian Airlines, Eivind Roald. Norse Atlantic hailed Roald


as a “turnaround specialist” with “more than 30 years of leadership experience across aviation, technology and commercial transformation” as it attempts to convince investors it can survive. Roald was chief commercial


officer at SAS, where he worked from 2012 to 2017. Since then, he has been outside the aviation sector, working on private equity


Bjørn Tore Larsen


Ryanair admits it lost money on Prime frequent-flyer scheme


investments in technology firms. Norse Atlantic launched in


June 2022 and began services from Gatwick to Oslo and New York in August the same year. It has operated, in effect, as a


successor transatlantic airline to Norwegian Air and the latter’s failed long-haul operation. Norwegian wound up in 2021 and downsized to become a relatively successful short- haul carrier while Norse Atlantic took over much of its long-haul fleet. Larsen will remain chair of the


airline’s board.


Ryanair axed its Prime loyalty scheme for frequent flyers last week just eight months after launching it, admitting the scheme had cost more money than it generated. The carrier launched


Prime in March this year, offering exclusive access to a monthly seat sale, free seat reservations and free insurance on every flight in return for a £79-a-year subscription. It claimed anyone flying 12


membership would be limited to 250,000 with subscribers accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. In the event, the airline signed


up just over 55,000 members and consequently lost money. The scheme closed to


Scheme axed


new members at the end of November following what Ryanair now calls “an eight-month trial


period”, although existing members will continue to


times a year would save up to five times the cost of the subscription. Ryanair described the


scheme as a “no-brainer” for regular customers, saying Prime


receive monthly Prime offers until October next year. A Ryanair spokesperson said:


“The level of subscription revenue does not justify the effort it takes to launch monthly Prime seat sales.”


Tui supports research on contrails Ian Taylor


Tui’s German airline Tuifly reported last week that some of its passenger flights are being accompanied in the air by a research aircraft operating on behalf of the German Aerospace Centre (DLR). The aircraft flies at a safe distance


from the Tui flights as they pass through airspace where there is a high probability of condensation trails (contrails) forming in order to gather data on the trails produced by modern ‘lean-burn’ engines. Scientists estimate contrails


double the global warming impact of CO2 emissions from flying. These linear ice clouds form at altitudes of eight to 14 kilometres in cold and humid conditions in the atmosphere.


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The flights are part of an EU research project, A4Climate (Aviation for Climate), launched in February and led


by the DLR. It involves 17 partner organisations


E from nine countries looking to


develop ways to minimise contrail formation – including new engine technologies, alternative fuels and climate-optimised flight routeing. Those involved include air traffic


management body Eurocontrol, the German Weather Service, flight-planning service Flightkeys, and researchers at the Max Planck Society, ETH Zurich, Imperial College London and the universities of Leeds and Reading as well as Tuifly. The measurements taken in


the project involving Tui will be used to assess how much the latest


engine technologies can reduce contrails, along with how modifying flight paths to avoid regions of the atmosphere where contrails are likely to form can lessen the impact. DLR project lead Christiane


Voigt said: “Our findings will advance knowledge on how much specific engine technologies and smart flight operations can reduce


Tuifly routes some flights to minimise contrail formation


the warming caused by contrails.” Christoph Todt, Tui Airline head


of environmental sustainability, explained: “We want to help ensure research results are quickly incorporated into aviation practice to reduce the impact of our flights.” Tuifly reported it has routed


several hundred flights since the start of 2025 to avoid creating contrails.


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PICTURES: Shutterstock/Markus Mainka, Cristi Mitu


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