London, anyone? New airline offers direct flights from Las Vegas

London is Las Vegas’ most popular overseas destination and Harry Reid International Airport on Thursday got a new way to get there.

Norse Atlantic Airways Flight 777 touched down in Las Vegas at around 3 p.m., inaugurating nonstop round-trip air service between London’s Gatwick International Airport and Reid with three-times-weekly service on Thursdays, Sundays and Tuesdays.

Norse Atlantic founder and CEO Bjørn Tore Larsen was among the passengers on the inaugural flight and said he mingled with passengers on the flight who said they were excited to get to Las Vegas.

Larsen views his airline as an industry disruptor with its low-cost fares.

He said he hopes the company can expand its Las Vegas presence by starting small and building.

The airline will operate seasonally through March, then restart in September 2025. He said he hopes demand will enable the airline to add flight frequency and he didn’t rule out the possibility of offering nonstop routes to and from other European cities.

“If you look at where we fly, you can see that there are other possibilities, but I can’t really identify anything yet,” he said. “But I’m really happy with this start.”

Larsen noted that not only was the flight from London nearly full, but the return flight that left later Thursday was near capacity as well.

“We really got the word out about us here and I think there are enough people who want to fly to London that we can fill our flights regularly,” he said.

The more than 300 passengers on the flight were greeted by Las Vegas showgirls at the arrival gate.

After passenger cleared U.S. Customs, representatives from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority greeted them with cookies displaying the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign.

When the airline announced its Las Vegas service in March, the discount carrier said economy one-way fares would start at $299 with premium fares of $699 one way.

The flight time on the trip from London was 10 hours, 40 minutes, with the plane arriving on time.

Norse Atlantic has a fleet of 10 twin-engine Boeing 787-9 aircraft with five more planes on order.

In addition to Las Vegas, Norse Atlantic flies to New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Orlando, Florida in the United States and Oslo, Norway; Athens, Greece; Berlin; Rome; and Paris internationally. It inaugurated service with flights between Oslo and New York in June 2022.

Norse Atlantic will compete on the London Gatwick route with British Airways, which also has three flights a week between there and Las Vegas.

Larsen said Gatwick is an ideal airport for Norse Atlantic’s flights because it is smaller than Heathrow International and there is good transportation access between Gatwick and central London.

Fletch Brunelle, vice president of marketing for the LVCVA, was among those who greeted Larsen and those on the first flight.

He said there are now 24 nonstop flights a week to and from London.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.

An earlier version of this story listed an incorrect number of flights between London and Las Vegas.