More cutbacks at Norwegian

Aviation taxes in Scotland are being blamed by Norwegian for a decision to end its transatlantic services between Edinburgh and New York and Boston next year. The airline is also scrapping flights linking Edinburgh with Barcelona and Tenerife.

“Our US flights were launched with the prospect of a reduction in air passenger taxes that was unfortunately postponed by the Scottish government,” Norwegian, which is also ending its US routes from Belfast, said.

On the other services, a spokesman added: “We continually monitor and evaluate routes across our network, and as such we have also decided to withdraw routes from Edinburgh to Barcelona and Tenerife allowing us to focus on maintaining better-performing flights to Scandinavia.”

On Belfast, he said: “Following a comprehensive review of our services … in response to customer demand, we have decided to withdraw our routes from Belfast to the New York and Boston areas.”

The airline added that New York and Boston-Providence remained “well served” by Norwegian from Dublin, Shannon and Cork with up to 33 weekly departures.

The latest cuts come less than two weeks after Norwegian announced it was ending its Gatwick – Singapore service, its only southeast Asia route, in January (BTN 17 September), contributing to fears about the airline’s long-term sustainability.

www.norwegian.com

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