The European airline, Norwegian, has been cutting costs and routes in recent months as it continues to instigate the move from growth to profitability strategy. The latest incantation of that strategy will see the budget carrier ax its US-bound flights from Copenhagen and Stockholm.
“We are constantly evaluating our route network to ensure that we meet demand. We are experiencing increasing demand on our routes between the US and Europe and look forward to offering travellers on both sides of the Atlantic more choices and great prices. At the same time, we see that the long-distance market to and from Scandinavia is small, compared to large cities such as New York, London, Los Angeles, Paris and Rome. Scandinavia is not large enough to maintain intercontinental flights from both Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen. For a long time we have had challenges with the Rolls Royce engines on our long-haul aircraft, which means we have more aircraft on the ground. This affects the route program, ”says Senior Vice President Commercial Matthew Wood.
The firm has decided that the routes to the US from Copenhagen Airport will not return after the winter break. However, the routes to Bangkok and Krabi in Thailand will be run from March 27th. These changes will have a dramatic effect on the airline's maintenance operation at the airport with at least 23 job losses.
From Stockholm, the routes to the US and Thailand will be wound down from March 29, 2020.
From Oslo, the US flights will continue at the moment, however, these are being watched and continuingly evaluated.
Norwegian's short- and medium-distance route networks from Copenhagen, Stockholm and Oslo are not affected by the changes in the long-haul schedule.
Sources say that further reductions in long-haul operations is on the way for Norwegian, although it will expand its medium and short-haul European network.
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