Budget airline Norwegian to axe 1,200 jobs in Spain
Norwegian Air Shuttle, currently under bankruptcy protection after the coronavirus pandemic pushed into a record loss last year, said Tuesday it plans to axe 85% of its workforce in Spain. The no-frills airline has informed unions of its plans to axe up nearly 1,200 cabin crew in Spain as part of a group-wide restructuring programme, a spokesman said. Norwegian will retain just two of its five bases in Spain -- in the southern coastal cities of Malaga and Alicante -- as part of a reduction of its short-haul operations. Like other airlines, Norwegian has been hit hard by the dramatic drop in air travel due to the Covid-19 pandemic and last year saw passenger numbers plummet by 81% to just 6.87m. Placed under bankruptcy protection in both Ireland and Norway, the carrier saw its bottom-line loss widen 15-fold to 23b kroner ($2.7b) last year. It has already closed its long-haul operations -- where it had been a pioneer in launching low-cost transatlantic flights in 2017 -- to instead focus on the Nordic market. But the company racked up repeated losses, partly because of technical misfortunes. Its Boeing 777 Dreamliners encountered problems with their Rolls-Royce engines, and then its Boeing 737 MAX aircraft were grounded, as elsewhere in the world, after two fatal crashes.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/imagelibrary/news/hot-topics/2021-05-05/unaligned/budget-airline-norwegian-to-axe-1-200-jobs-in-spain
https://portal.staralliance.com/imagelibrary/logo.png
Budget airline Norwegian to axe 1,200 jobs in Spain
Norwegian Air Shuttle, currently under bankruptcy protection after the coronavirus pandemic pushed into a record loss last year, said Tuesday it plans to axe 85% of its workforce in Spain. The no-frills airline has informed unions of its plans to axe up nearly 1,200 cabin crew in Spain as part of a group-wide restructuring programme, a spokesman said. Norwegian will retain just two of its five bases in Spain -- in the southern coastal cities of Malaga and Alicante -- as part of a reduction of its short-haul operations. Like other airlines, Norwegian has been hit hard by the dramatic drop in air travel due to the Covid-19 pandemic and last year saw passenger numbers plummet by 81% to just 6.87m. Placed under bankruptcy protection in both Ireland and Norway, the carrier saw its bottom-line loss widen 15-fold to 23b kroner ($2.7b) last year. It has already closed its long-haul operations -- where it had been a pioneer in launching low-cost transatlantic flights in 2017 -- to instead focus on the Nordic market. But the company racked up repeated losses, partly because of technical misfortunes. Its Boeing 777 Dreamliners encountered problems with their Rolls-Royce engines, and then its Boeing 737 MAX aircraft were grounded, as elsewhere in the world, after two fatal crashes.<br/>
