The Board of Directors of Norwegian Air Shuttle has outlined a simplified business structure and dedicated short haul route network, as it seeks to exit its Irish Examinership and Norwegian Reconstruction processes during the first quarter of 2021.
Norwegian will focus on its core Nordics business, operating a European short haul network with an initial maximum of 50 narrow body Boeing 737 aircraft, owned and leased. These will be increased to around 70 narrow body aircraft in 2022.
Under these circumstances a long-haul operation is not viable for Norwegian and these operations will therefore not continue, affecting its services in Italy, France, UK and US.
“Our short haul network has always been the backbone of Norwegian and will form the basis of a future resilient business model,” said Jacob Schram, CEO of Norwegian.
“Our focus is to rebuild a strong, profitable Norwegian so that we can safeguard as many jobs as possible. We do not expect customer demand in the long-haul sector to recover in the near future, and our focus will be on developing our short haul network as we emerge from the reorganisation process, said Schram. “It is with a heavy heart that we must accept that this will impact dedicated colleagues from across the company. I would like to thank each one of our affected colleagues for their tireless dedication and contribution to Norwegian over the years.”
