First ever Direct connection Athens - Los Angeles in Summer 2025 with Norse Atlantic
Hollywood Glow, One Selfie ( & One Flight 😉 ) At A Time! 💫 Fascinating developments for Athens network to the US, from 46 weekly frequencies pre-Pandemic to 103 in Summer 2025
Following a very successful start in 2024, inaugurating its first flight from Athens to New York JFK that performed very well for the airline, Norse, acknowledging the dynamics of Athens in the US market has announced the introduction of a direct route from Athens to Los Angeles in Summer 2025!
Direct flights from Athens to Los Angeles with Norse Atlantic will start on the 3rd of June, operating 4 times weekly with a B787 equipment. Flights will depart Athens every Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, with a flight duration of 13:30 on the ATH to LAX sector.
Los Angeles was a long awaited addition for Athens as it is Athens Top unserved market , with over 100 thousand round-trip PAX in 2024.
But, LAX is not the only development from Norse Atlantic, the airline is further enhancing its New York JFK offering by adding one more weekly frequency from Athens in Summer 2025, bringing the total weekly frequencies to 6/7 from 5/7. All in all, the airline will double its weekly capacity from Athens to the US from 5/7 in Summer 2024 to 10/7 (6 to JFK & 4 to LAX).
Why Los Angeles ?
This is a brilliant move by Norse Atlantic as LAX is Athens TOP unserved route with 108 thousand round-trip PAX in 2024, with all of that traffic connecting to Athens via other points both in North America and in Europe. Furthermore, Athens was totally unserved in the US West Coast, with San Francisco for example adding 71 thousand Indirect round-trip PAX on top. San Francisco is Athens second largest Unserved market globally.
Based on IATA AirportIS figures, Los Angeles was the 3rd largest origin for Athens in the US market, following New York and Chicago.
For many years, Los Angeles was the strongest Unserved route for Athens, which continued to grow along with our overall US market.
In addition, California is the home of the 2nd largest Greek diaspora Community in the US with hundreds of thousand Greek-Americans leaving in the State.
Our US market
US is the strongest International market for Athens and very important not only for the city but for Greece overall.
In terms of Foreign residents’ arrivals, US was a market of over 1mio arrivals in 2024, by far the strongest among all International markets.
As per IATA AirporIS, O&D traffic from US to Athens is on the rise, increasing by 8% in 2024 vs. 2023 but most importantly it has increased by 173% in the last 10 years!! (vs. 2014).
This increasing demand from the US market is the main driver of spectacular Network Developments for Athens.
Compared to the pre-Pandemic era, Athens network increased from 4 airport destinations to 7 in 2024 and will add 2 more in Summer 2025.
At the same time, Weekly frequencies in the Summer increased from 46 in 2019 to 82 last Summer. That was 1 departure to the US every 2 hours!! And it will reach 103 weekly departures this Summer.
Equally, the number of Services (airlines to each destination) will double in S’25, from 6 in 2019.
Due to the spectacular additions in the Athens US network, Athens Direct traffic to US boomed in 2024, increasing by 23% vs. 2023. This is the highest volume of Direct traffic to the US so far, for the airport.
US direct traffic for Athens reached 1.2mio round-trip PAX, with Athens serving not only as a point-to-point route but also as a via HUB to the greater region.
Despite the impressive evolution of Athens Network to the US and the 12 daily frequencies in the Summer season, a large part of the traffic 70%, is still traveling Indirectly.
Emirates is the only airline operating full year-round to the US, to Newark, with Delta Airlines extending its operations to the mid of January and starting in early March. As the overall US market to Athens increased over the years, so did traffic in the Winter season.
Los Angeles direct route with Norse is not the only development for Athens in Summer 2025 as the airport will welcome one more new destination with American Airlines connecting Charlotte to Athens daily in Summer 2025. This latest development, will make American Airlines the operator with the largest number of destinations to the US x4 from Athens, with Charlotte supplementing the airline services to New York JFK, Chicago and Philadelphia.
Is this all ? NO, as Delta Airlines will add 6 more weekly frequencies to Atlanta, increasing to 13/7. United Airlines will add 3 more weekly frequencies to Newark, increasing to 10/7 and Norse will add 1 more to New York JFK.
In addition, United Airlines will extend the season to New York Newark and Chicago, starting 3 weeks earlier.
Wishing Norse always safe and full flights, we remain committed to continuing to support Norse Atlantic at Athens, as it keeps growing its US operations and beyond !!