Primera launched flights from Birmingham to New York on May 18, a month after it began flying transatlantic from Stansted.

The carrier is part of Denmark’s Primera Travel Group, which owns nine tour operators in Scandinavia and Iceland. Its customer base of one million passengers means it already has strong relationships with hoteliers.

“We are going to do it; ancillaries is the name of the game,” Primera Air chief executive Hrafn Thorgeirsson told TTG. He added: “We are already offering insurance and car rental, it’s probably only a matter of weeks.”

Primera’s transatlantic launch has been hit by late aircraft delivery, with a charter carrier operating its Stansted-Newark service for the first three weeks.

Late delivery of another Airbus A321 has now forced Primera to cancel its inaugural Stansted-Toronto flight and charter an aircraft for its Birmingham transatlantic route launches.

The Stansted-Toronto service had been scheduled to start on May 31, but the Airbus A321 due to fly the route has not been delivered in time, and Primera has decided to cancel the flight rather than incur further hefty chartering costs.

Primera’s marketing manager Nauris Bruvelis told TTG the delivery of the airline’s second Airbus A321 might be delayed “by a few days” and could affect flights from Stansted to Toronto and Boston from May 30 to June 1.

“To avoid possible risk of notifying passengers at very last moment, the flights were cancelled. All passengers affected are being contacted by Primera Air customer service,” he said.

“Birmingham operations in May have also been affected by the delay, as several short-haul flights were planned on the same aircraft,” he added.

“The long-haul flights to New York and Toronto will be operated by National Airlines on behalf of Primera Air until August, when we receive more aircraft.”