Article from BTNews 19 AUGUST 2019
Norwegian axes Ireland – US flights
The high cost of leasing aircraft to replace the grounded Boeing B737 MAX is forcing Norwegian Air to halt flights between Ireland and the US and Canada from mid-September as the routes have become unviable.
After a series of financial setbacks, Norwegian had already announced late last year plans to switch from a policy of rapid capacity growth to one of consolidation to cut costs and bring losses under control.
More recently, the airline warned the grounding of the B737 MAX, which makes up 11% of its fleet, could affect its plans to return to profitability this year.
A company statement said: “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 from 15 September 2019.”
Norwegian said it would refund customers who no longer wished to travel from Ireland to the US and Canada via other destinations and it would continue to fly from Dublin to Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen.
Norwegian launched flights between Ireland and North America in 2017, three years after introducing the first low-cost, long-haul flights between the UK and the US.
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