Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA (Norwegian) will shelve its entire 787 Dreamliner fleet, and stop all long-haul flights, focusing instead on its core Nordics business, and operating a European short-haul network with narrow body aircraft.
“Our focus is to rebuild a strong, profitable Norwegian so that we can safeguard as many jobs as possible,” said Jacob Schram, CEO of Norwegian. “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.”
The carrier’s highly recognizable red-nosed fleet will be drastically cut back to 50 narrow body aircraft in 2021, with the number rising to around 70 narrow body aircraft in 2022. Norwegian’s entire Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet has been grounded since March 2020, and under these circumstances, the company has decided its long-haul operation is no long viable.
“Our short-haul network has always been the backbone of Norwegian and will form the basis of a future resilient business model,” said Schram. The company has also made it clear: “Customers with bookings affected by the future changes in our route network will be contacted directly and will be refunded.”
