It seems Norwegian Air Shuttle is still working out how to be more efficient, with the airline planning to pair back its long haul routes from Stockholm (Sweden) and Copenhagen (Denmark).
A sight that will be seen less often – Norwegian Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner at Stockholm Arlanda Airport. Image, Economy Class and Beyond
First reported by e24.no, the cuts are part of the effort by the airline to move from growth to profitability.
And regular viewers will know this isn’t the first move by Norweigan to move towards this magical land.
Flights from Oslo will be maintained to the USA (Newark and Fort Lauderdale), however, flights from Stockholm and Oslo to the USA and Thailand will be withdrawn.
The reasons? Apart from the network shrink of unprofitable routes, we come to the Rolls Royce Trent Engines – which have been a scourge of problems for airlines. Combine them together, and this seems an easy withdrawal to make.
The withdrawals
- Copenhagen – Bangkok
- Copenhagen – Krabi
- Stockholm- Bangkok
- Stockholm – Fort Lauderdale
- Stockholm – Krabi
- Oslo – Bangkok
Considered for Winter 2020/2021
- Oslo – Krabi
- Oslo – Bangkok
The aircraft will be redeployed to different markets where the airline stands a chance of making money. These are unsurprising London, Barcelona and Paris – and will be deployed westward to the USA.
In quotes
Senior Vice President Commercial in Norwegian, Matthew Wood said
We are constantly evaluating the route network to ensure that we meet market demand and look forward to offering travelers on both sides of the Atlantic more choices and good 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 Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen. For a long time, we have had challenges with the Rolls Royce engines on our long-haul flights, which means we need to have more aircraft on the ground. This affects the route program,
The Norwegian Search for Profitability
It seems the search for profitability is a long one for Norwegian Air Shuttle, as it seeks to balance fleet availability, routes and profit. Gone are the days of rapid expansion with a seemingly gun-ho attitude, replaced by someone actually doing the numbers to see if a route works or not.
And that’s welcome to see as it balances this all out.
At the same time, with less pressure on the fleet, it can stem the use of other airlines to provide lift for it – again reducing costs.
How this plays out in the longer term, will be one to watch. There are still far too many pieces of the Norwegian jigsaw to put together…
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