Norwegian Air to end flights between Ireland and US
Norwegian Air Shuttle is scaling back its transatlantic ambitions as the struggling low-cost airline ends its services between Ireland and the US. The carrier said on Tuesday that it would stop flying from Dublin, Cork and Shannon to the US and Canada from September 15. It blamed the grounding of Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft after two fatal crashes for making the routes “no longer commercially viable”. It marks the first big retreat from Norwegian’s rapid and expensive push into the long-haul sector. The low-cost airline had hoped to shake up the industry by using new aircraft such as the 737 Max and Boeing’s Dreamliner to fly to lesser-known US destinations from regional airports in Europe. Under pressure from investors worried that its rapid expansion could spell financial collapse, Norwegian has reversed course in recent months, saying it would no longer prioritise growth but would aim for better profitability. It also raised fresh capital and replaced its chief executive and chairman, who together are also the airline’s biggest shareholder. “We take a strict approach to route management and constantly evaluate route performance to ensure we meet customer demand. Compounded by the global grounding of the 737 Max and the continued uncertainty of its return to service, this has led us to make the difficult decision to discontinue all six routes from Dublin, Cork and Shannon to the US and Canada,” said Matthew Wood, senior vice-president for long-haul commercial. Norwegian last year stopped transatlantic flights from Edinburgh and Belfast but kept them from its three other Irish airports to New York Stewart, Providence and Hamilton-Toronto. The low-cost airline said it was in negotiations with pilots and cabin crew in Dublin “to ensure that redundancies remain a last resort”. It will continue to fly to Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen from the Irish capital. <br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2019-08-14/unaligned/norwegian-air-to-end-flights-between-ireland-and-us
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Norwegian Air to end flights between Ireland and US
Norwegian Air Shuttle is scaling back its transatlantic ambitions as the struggling low-cost airline ends its services between Ireland and the US. The carrier said on Tuesday that it would stop flying from Dublin, Cork and Shannon to the US and Canada from September 15. It blamed the grounding of Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft after two fatal crashes for making the routes “no longer commercially viable”. It marks the first big retreat from Norwegian’s rapid and expensive push into the long-haul sector. The low-cost airline had hoped to shake up the industry by using new aircraft such as the 737 Max and Boeing’s Dreamliner to fly to lesser-known US destinations from regional airports in Europe. Under pressure from investors worried that its rapid expansion could spell financial collapse, Norwegian has reversed course in recent months, saying it would no longer prioritise growth but would aim for better profitability. It also raised fresh capital and replaced its chief executive and chairman, who together are also the airline’s biggest shareholder. “We take a strict approach to route management and constantly evaluate route performance to ensure we meet customer demand. Compounded by the global grounding of the 737 Max and the continued uncertainty of its return to service, this has led us to make the difficult decision to discontinue all six routes from Dublin, Cork and Shannon to the US and Canada,” said Matthew Wood, senior vice-president for long-haul commercial. Norwegian last year stopped transatlantic flights from Edinburgh and Belfast but kept them from its three other Irish airports to New York Stewart, Providence and Hamilton-Toronto. The low-cost airline said it was in negotiations with pilots and cabin crew in Dublin “to ensure that redundancies remain a last resort”. It will continue to fly to Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen from the Irish capital. <br/>
