Norwegian is to end all flights between Ireland and the USA from 15 September as it looks to cut loss-making routes.
"As the airline moves from growth to profitability, we have conducted a comprehensive review of our transatlantic operations between Ireland and North America and considering the grounding of the Boeing 737 Max aircraft, we have concluded that these routes are no longer commercially viable," says Matthew Wood, senior vice-president long-haul commercial at Norwegian. The airline began operating six routes from Dublin, Cork and Shannon to the USA in July 2017.
Norwegian's operations from Ireland have been hit by the ongoing grounding of the Boeing 737 Max aircraft, which has seen it wet-lease aircraft in order to maintain its schedules. However, the continued uncertainty over when the aircraft will be able to return to the skies means that "this solution is unsustainable".
The airline says it will ensure passengers are still able to travel to their destinations after 15 September by re-routing them onto other Norwegian services, as well as offering a full refund to those who no longer wish to fly with the carrier.
"We are proactively engaging with our pilots and cabin crew at our Dublin base, including their respective unions, to ensure that redundancies remain a last resort," Wood explains. Norwegian will continue to offer scheduled services from Dublin to Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen and the airline's 80 Dublin-based administrative staff at Norwegian Air International and Norwegian Group's asset company, Arctic Aviation Assets, will not be affected by the route closures.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
