Norwegian has just announced that it must suspend two new transatlantic routes, Las Vegas-London Gatwick and Orlando-Stockholm Arlanda. The airline has already announced that it has no intention of reintegrating these routes into its network in the near future. At the same time, ten routes will be transformed into seasonal routes operating only during the summer. These include several business routes such as Boston-Paris Charles de GaulleChicago-London Gatwick, Denver-London Gatwick, Los Angeles-Copenhagen, Los Angeles-Oslo, Los Angeles-Rome Fiumicino, New York JFK-Copenhagen and New York JFK-Stockholm. These routes will not be operated during the winter of 2019-2020. The long-haul aircraft will be redeployed mainly to Asia, but also to South America.
Another strategic decision was to transfer some flights from Oakland International Airport to San Francisco in order to boost traffic on certain routes between Europe and Northern California. Following the transfer earlier this year of the London Gatwick route from Oakland to San Francisco, the winter season will see the transfer of the Oakland-Barcelona and Oakland-Paris routes to San Francisco for the start of the winter season. Norwegian's other Californian seasonal routes to Copenhagen, Oslo, Rome and Stockholm will remain in Oakland.
" San Francisco International Airport offers four advantages over its Oakland counterpart. It has better visibility and search engine optimisation, higher average fares that attract more high-end travellers, and better cargo opportunities", said Anders Lindström, Norwegian's Director of Communications for North America, in an interview with Air Transport World magazine.
A resigning CEO
However, analysts remain pessimistic about Norwegian's ability to survive in the long term without a massive recapitalisation. Especially as its financial results have been affected by another unforeseen event. The company is recording losses linked to thegrounding its 18 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft. Norwegian has had to replace these aircraft with older, less fuel-efficient leased aircraft. This situation is not about to improve, as the aircraft is facing new technological problems that are prolonging its downtime. Norwegian has already announced its intention to think about changing its short-haul fleetThe airline also announced on July 11 the resignation of its CEO Bjorn Kjos. In addition, on July 11 the airline announced the resignation of its CEO Bjorn Kjos, with Geir Karlsen taking over as interim CEO. " We must ensure that Norwegian is well prepared and well positioned to deal with volatile markets and unforeseen events." explains Niels Smedegaard, Chairman of the Board of Directors. He continued: " It is essential that we continue to implement our cost reduction initiatives and ensure that our portfolio of routes is profitable. It is also important that the new CEO develops an organisation that promotes continuous improvement and operational excellence." .
