Greenland Express: the new route to America?

Picture: Greenland Express

In a recent post we pointed out the imminent re-launch of Greenland Express, an airline with based in Greenland (Kangerlussuaq) and Denmark (Aalborg) that is about to become the second Superjet operator in Western Europe.

A couple of interesting points about this new carrier that, according to its founder and CEO, Gert Brask, plans to operate a hybrid model, that would place it somewhere between a low cost and a full service carrier:

Greenland Express has acquired Denim Air, a Dutch airline and old acquaintance of this blog, that operated a sort of "white label" business model. Denim Air, leases its aircraft to other airlines, in fact some of the lesses are not "real" airlines, in the sense that they do not have their own air operator certificate, making them, essentially, distribution businesses that leverage that focus on the commercial and marketing side, while outsourcing their operations.

Greenland Express, founded in 2013, had operated along this "virtual airline" model, but with Denim Air's AOC, it will become a fully-fledged airline.

The other interesting aspect is that all points to Greenland Express attempting to operate a trans-Atlantic operation via Greenland. This would mean a new player in the interesting northern route between Europe and America, the traditional preserve of Icelandic carriers such as Icelandair, and more recently, also low cost carrier WOW.

And the historical details: if this plans go ahead, Greenland Express would be reestablishing the original route through which Europeans managed to set foot in America for the first time, when viking explorers sailed from Greenland to Newfoundland, over 1,000 years ago.