The long haul carrier has been forced to get smaller which includes selling aircrafts- back to its lessor- closing bases and suspending its international expansion as Covid pandemic is in place.
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| Norwegian founded in 1993 but only began its operation with 737 as a low budget airline in 2002 |
The coronavirus pandemic has revised Norwegian's business plan and the board directors have made the decision to suspend all long haul flights from and to America Brazil and Thailand and it will operate domestic flights and short haul flights across nordic countries and some key European destinations.
Part of its revised business structure its the plan to operate a new short haul network around Scandinavian and Europe with only 50 aircrafts. Also to increase that number to around 70 narrow body aircrafts by 2022.
"The short haul network have been always been the backbone of Norwegian and will form the basis of a failure resilient business mode"l said Jacob Schram CEO of Norwegian in a statement.
The demand on travelling has been decreased dramatically especially on international destinations and the Norwegian's directors have seen that the long haul operation is not viable anymore.
The board directors have decided to shut down the bases in New York London Paris, Barcelona Rome
" 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 on a statement.
The closure of the bases around the world means that thousands of pilots and cabin crew who have been on furlough already have found themselves unemployed with the beginning of the 2021.
"It is with a heavy heart 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."
The 27 years old air carrier has managed to survive from and potential collapse after securing financial support from the Norwegian government when travel restrictions had been introduced in March 2020. However the Norwegian government is currently in a dialogue with the airline about possible state participation to the new business plan.
The directors' plan is to cut airline's costs to reduce its debt by 20 billions NOK and to raise 4.5 billions NOK through its shareholders in order to grow and to make a profitable and sustainable business for its investors and employees.
