It seems that a mixture of losses and unavailable fleet issues is forcing Norwegian Air Shuttle’s hand – with the airline suspending all Irish to North America Routes from 15th September 2019.
In happier times, when Norwegian flew their own equipment from Dublin Airport – Norwegian Boeing 737 MAX 8 departing Dublin Airport (Shot Summer 2018) – Image, Economy Class and Beyond
The routes being suspended include:
- Dublin to Hamilton, Providence and Stewart International (Newburg)
- Cork to Providence
- Shannon to Providence Stewart International (Newburg)
The airline is blaming the move on the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX as well the commercial viability of these routes.
Operations have been maintained either by using their own Boeing 737-800 aircraft
Norwegian Boeing 737-800 Departing Dublin for Transatlantic service – Image, Economy Class and Beyond
or hiring in equipment (such as Evelop Airbus A330).
Evelop operating Norwegians Dublin-Stewart International Service – Image, Economy Class and Beyond
Passengers who are affected can either reroute using other Norwegian services or request a refund.
Norwegian services between Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen will continue as normal.
In quotes
Matthew Wood, SVP Long-Haul Commercial at Norwegian said:
“As the airline moves from growth to profitability, we have conducted a comprehensive review of our transatlantic operations between Ireland and North America and considering the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, we have concluded that these routes are no longer commercially viable.
“We take a strict approach to route management and constantly evaluate route performance to ensure we meet customer demand. 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.”
“Since March, we have tirelessly sought to minimise the impact on our customers by hiring (wetleasing) replacement aircraft to operate services between Ireland and North America. However, as the return to service date for the 737 MAX remains uncertain, this solution is unsustainable.
Sustainability is the question
With Norwegian getting its head out of the network build-out phase and moving to a more sustainable operation.
Already, this has taken the form of some network cuts for winter and summer 2020 as well Las Vegas routes being withdrawn.
The Irish transatlantic routes relied on aircraft with high efficiencies and low costs.
With those costs rising – the routes were easily the next part of the network to be snipped.
The question is… where is the next efficiency to be found?
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