From this December, a British holidaymaker will be able to board a Boeing 787 at London Gatwick and step off it on a beach in southern Thailand — no change of plane, no Gulf stopover. Norse Atlantic Airways has announced a new nonstop service between Gatwick and Phuket, running three times a week from the winter 2026–27 season.

It is a classic low-cost long-haul play: take a widebody jet, point it at a sun-and-sea destination Brits love, and undercut the legacy carriers who route the same journey through Doha or Dubai.

A spare Dreamliner, put to work

The new route is possible because Norse has an aircraft to fly it. The expansion follows the return of a Boeing 787-9 from a lease, handing the airline spare widebody capacity to deploy — and rather than let an expensive Dreamliner sit idle, Norse is sending it to Thailand.

That is the whole Norse Atlantic model in miniature. The Norwegian carrier built its business on flying point-to-point long-haul routes with a lean fleet of 787s, chasing leisure traffic that the big network airlines either overprice or route inconveniently.

Part of a bigger Thailand push

Phuket from Gatwick is the headline, but it is one piece of a broader bet on Thailand. Norse is also adding frequencies on existing Bangkok and Phuket services from the UK, Norway and Sweden, and lifting Manchester–Bangkok to four flights a week from December.

Thailand has become one of the hottest long-haul leisure markets in Europe, and Norse is not the only carrier piling in — legacy airlines from Britain and France are expanding to Phuket too. The difference is price: Norse is betting that a no-frills Dreamliner seat will fill the cabin where a premium fare would leave it half-empty.

The catch

Low-cost long-haul is a notoriously brutal business — thin margins, long flights, and fierce competition have sunk plenty of would-be rivals. Whether Gatwick–Phuket sticks around beyond a single winter will come down to how many travellers are willing to trade a stopover and a meal service for a cheaper, direct flight to the Andaman coast. For this winter, at least, the option exists for the first time.

Sources: Norse Atlantic Airways; AeroRoutes; TTG Media; Economy Class & Beyond.