Norwegian Airlines won’t be bringing its transatlantic services back to Shannon Airport.
The flights have been discontinued over recent months, and now Norwegian has confirmed it’s discontinuing all of its Transatlantic flights from Ireland.
Norwegian says their decision comes following a review of transatlantic operations, in the wake of the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft that it was to use from Shannon to Stewart and Providence Airports.
This review, they say, has found that the routes, as well as those from Dublin and Cork, are no longer commercially viable.
As a result, it’s pulling all transatlantic services from the three Irish Airports from September 15th, although it will continue to operate some services to Scandanavia from the capital.
Norwegian pulled its Shannon flights in the aftermath of the grounding of the MAX Aircraft, a move which represented a significant blow to the Airport and the region.
Shannon lost out on 120,000 potential customers because of Norwegian’s move, coupled with that by Air Canada to suspsed flights to Toronto, while they estimate that it represented a €60 million blow to the local economy also.
Matthew Wood, SVP Long-Haul Commercial at Norwegian
“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.
“We are assisting customers by ensuring they can still get to their destination by rerouting them onto other Norwegian services. Customers will also be offered a full refund if they no longer wish to travel. We will continue to offer scheduled services from Dublin to Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen as normal.
“We are proactively engaging with our pilots and cabin crew at our Dublin base, including their respective unions, to ensure that redundancies remain a last resort.
“Our 80 Dublin-based administrative staff at Norwegian Air International and Norwegian Group’s asset company, Arctic Aviation Assets, will not be affected by the route closures.
“We would like to thank Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports in addition to New York Stewart, Providence and Hamilton airports, tourism partners and our colleagues and customers for supporting Norwegian’s transatlantic expansion from Ireland since 2017.”
