After a successful season with packed airplanes flying between New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport and Athens Eleftherios Venizelos Airport painted with the Norse Atlantic logo and colors, the European budget carrier announced this year that it was adding a new route.
The Norway-based airline will launch non-stop service between Athens and Los Angeles on June 3, 2025, operating 4 times weekly with a B787.
Spanning 6,928 miles (11,149 km) and requiring approximately 13 hours and 30 minutes, flights will depart Athens every Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
The decision to add this route was based purely on statistics.
After New York and Chicago, Los Angeles is the third largest origin city of passengers arriving at Athens International Airport. This means these customers— more than 108,000 travelers in 2024— departed Los Angeles and connected in another city to eventually arrive in Athens.
In the airline industry, two airports not directly connected is referred to as an “unserved route,” meaning the travelers from the origin city must connected at another airport to arrive at the final destination.
Prior to Norse Atlantic announcing their LAX to Athens service, Los Angeles was the Greek capital’s largest unserved route. San Francisco ranks as the second largest, with 71,000 travelers to Athens originating from the Northern California city.
