Norwegian ends long-haul adventure

The carrier which pioneered cheap transatlantic flights between Europe and the US will now focus on short-haul routes as part of a plan to exit insolvency.

Norwegian Air Shuttle will exit the low-cost long-haul market to focus on services within Norway and to “key European destinations.”

The carrier said ongoing COVID-19 travel restrictions mean that “future demand remains highly uncertain” for its flights to the US and Asia, making its long-haul operations no longer viable.

The carrier has 2,160 pilots and crew working at subsidiaries in the UK, U.S., Italy, Spain and France whose jobs will go; 1,100 of those staff are at Norwegian’s London Gatwick (LGW) base.

Norwegian said the move was part of a strategy to “build a robust and solid company that will attract investors and continue to serve new and existing customers.” The airline filed for protection from creditors in Ireland in November.

“Our short-haul network has always been the backbone of Norwegian and will form the basis of a future resilient business model,” Norwegian CEO Jacob Schram said.

“By focusing our operation on a short-haul network, we aim to attract existing and new investors, serve our customers and support the wider infrastructure and travel industry in Norway and across the Nordics and Europe.”

Norwegian has been hit hard by the COVID-19 crisis but was already struggling before the pandemic after its rapid long-haul expansion left it with a huge debt burden. The worldwide grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX jet also affected operations and a restructuring process was underway when coronavirus brought the airline to a standstill.

The LCC now plans to serve the Nordics and European destinations with around 50 narrowbody aircraft this year, increasing to about 70 in 2022. The business also hopes to raise as much as NOK5 billion ($590 million) in new capital to finance its operations.

Norwegian began offering low-cost long-haul services in May 2013, initially from Oslo (OSL) and Stockholm Arlanda (ARN) to New York John F Kennedy (JFK) using Airbus A340-300s.

Following the arrival of the carrier’s first 787-8 aircraft later that year, further routes were added. Transatlantic service began from Copenhagen (CPH), while Fort Lauderdale (FLL) became its second destination in the US.

In the subsequent years, Norwegian became a disruptive force in the European aviation industry under the leadership of co-founder Bjørn Kjos, adding large amounts of capacity and rapidly increasing the number of routes, particularly to US destinations like Boston (BOS), Los Angeles (LAX), Newark (EWR) and Oakland (OAK).

The airline carved out a niche in finding big point-to-point markets with room to grow and stimulate new traffic, as well as targeting unserved routes to secondary cites.


By David Casey - Routes Online