Norwegian quits long-haul for good, 787 ready for highest bidder
It seems light years away from the splendor with which the low-cost airline Norwegian announced new routes, opened new bases [...]
Norwegian Air Shuttle
It seems light years away from the glories with which the low-cost airline Norwegian announced new routes, opened new bases, and was the first to transport passengers across the Atlantic on cheap tickets.
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Since March 2020, the entire long-haul fleet, consisting of ultra-modern 787s, has been parked at various airports. Since that time, many aircraft have already been handed back to leasing companies, and among them a couple of have ended up in Italy after being repainted and reconfigured and are now ready to take off for the charter airline Neos Air.
Today, however, came the inevitable announcement: "Norwegian will focus on European network, ending all intercontinental routes."
At the height of 2019, when nothing seemed to be able to stop the growth of air traffic and the demand for new routes, planes with the effigies of the famous Norwegian explorers on their tails connected dozens of European cities with as many overseas destinations, even reaching South America and Asia.
But what has recently been Named, once again, the best European low cost is forced to make A step back and start from the basics.
"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.- The current plan is to serve these markets with about 50 aircraft in 2021 and to increase that number to about 70 in 2022. In addition, Norwegian aims to significantly reduce its debt to about NOK 20 billion, about 2 billion euros. The company recently restarted a dialogue with the Norwegian government on possible state participation based on the new business plan."
Norwegian Air Ribbon Cutting Ceremony- June 29, 2013
"Our goal is to rebuild a strong and profitable Norwegian so that we can safeguard as many jobs as possible. We do not expect demand in the long-haul sector to recover in the near future and our goal will be to develop our short-range network as we emerge from the reorganization process," Schram concluded.
In November 2019, the airline, which had a base in Rome Fiumicino, announced its growth with the opening of two new connections to the U.S., coming to include 6 destinations: New York JFK, Los Angeles, San Francisco/Oakland, Boston, Denver, and Chicago. The goal was to carry nearly half a million passengers in 2020 to Italy alone.
Today, however, all 787s were officially returned to their rightful owners, and it is not certain that those same planes, repainted in a different livery, will not soon return to Fiumicino, as they may also be of interest to the new Alitalia, which specifically decided to focus on the 787 for its long-haul fleet.
