Norse Atlantic Airways

Norse Atlantic Airways is the Norwegian long-haul low-cost carrier that picked up the transatlantic torch after Norwegian Long Haul folded, flying a fleet of Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners on budget routes between Europe and North America. It runs two cabins rather than one: a real premium economy called Norse Premium, and a large main economy. That two-cabin split is the key thing to understand before choosing a seat, because the two are meaningfully different products, not the same seat with a different label.

Norse flies one aircraft type, the Boeing 787-9, which keeps the cabin experience consistent across the network. The Dreamliner brings the things long-haul travellers actually notice: larger windows with electronic dimming instead of a plastic shade, higher cabin humidity and lower cabin altitude, both of which take some of the edge off a seven- or eight-hour crossing. Economy is laid out 3-3-3, nine seats across, while Norse Premium sits up front in a roomier 2-3-2.

Norse Premium is the standout: fewer seats per row, noticeably more pitch and width, and the calmer front-of-cabin position, which is the difference between arriving able to function and arriving wrecked on a daytime crossing. Economy is straightforward budget long-haul, sold à la carte so that meals, bags and seat selection are extras rather than givens. The 787 airframe itself does a lot of quiet work in both cabins, so even a standard economy seat feels less punishing than the same journey on an older widebody.

In Norse Premium the 2-3-2 layout means couples do well with the two-seat pairs at the windows, while the middle triple is the one to hand to a family travelling together. In economy, the 3-3-3 layout puts a true window and a true aisle at the edges of each triple and a trapped middle in between, so a pair travelling together is often happier taking an aisle and a middle than gambling on a stranger. Anyone chasing sleep should sit well forward of the rear galleys and away from the lavatory clusters, and light sleepers should weigh a premium seat as the single upgrade that most changes an overnight leg.