Norwegian has confirmed they are to end its transatlantic flights from Ireland to the United States from September this year. The low-cost airline blames the global grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft for this decision.
“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,” said Matthew Robert Wood, one of the airline’s senior vice presidents.
The airline said they are continuing to fly 46 non-stop routes from the US to Europe with their Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, with the exception of Ireland.
“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,” said Matthew Robert Wood.
Norwegian says they have contacted the affected customers and offered them to be rerouted to other Norwegian flights or a full refund. U.S. customers can travel to Dublin via Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm.
Non-stop flights from Cork and Shannon (in Ireland) to North America ended in March due to the grounding of the 737 MAX aircraft, with passengers being rerouted to Dublin flights.
Norwegian says the last flights from North America to Ireland will arrive on 15th of September 2019.