Norwegian Air will suspend several transatlantic services this winter despite reporting “solid” passenger growth in March.
Low-cost long-haul carrier Norwegian will halt services from Edinburgh, Shannon and Cork to Boston-Providence from the end of October “due to lower demand” through the winter.
The services were all previously scheduled as year-round.
In a statement, the carrier said: “Following a comprehensive review of our services, we have decided to suspend flights from Edinburgh, Cork and Shannon to Providence during the quieter winter period.
“We will continue to assess our transatlantic route performance as we confirm the route schedule for next summer.”
Norwegian recently announced a doubling of services on the Shannon-Boston Providence route from two to four a day. It launched the Edinburgh-Providence services last year.
The carrier reported heavier than expected loss of $117 million (NKr919 million) for the final quarter of 2017 and a net loss for the year of NKr299 million in a turnaround from a Nkr1.1 billion profit in 2016.
The losses led aviation analysts to warn the airline needs to show improvement for its investment case to stand up.
Norwegian reported “solid” passenger growth in March with the help of an earlier Easter, carrying more than 2.8 million passengers in the month – up 363,000 on March 2017 and with the average load factor up 2.6 percentage points to 86.7%.
The airline noted: “Easter was in March this year, consequently increasing traffic. We will therefore see the opposite effect for the April figures.”
However, chief executive Bjørn Kjos insisted: “Even though Easter strongly impacts this month’s figures, we have a solid passenger growth.
“The international growth continues, and more people are flying with us in Scandinavia.”
The airline took delivery of a further three Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners in March.
It will receive 11 Boeing 787-9s, 12 Boeing 737 MAX8s and two Boeing 737-800s in total this year.
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