Norwegian Air today said that it will end all long-haul operations, which have been rendered unviable by travel restrictions and future demand uncertainty. It will instead focus on its network across the Nordic region and Europe.
"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," chief executive Jacob Schram said.
Travel restrictions and lockdown measures imposed to curb the spread of Covid-19 have weighed on the aviation industry and put a strain on the demand recovery, especially with regards to long-haul travel. This highly uncertain outlook and the grounding of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet since March 2020 have rendered Norwegian's long-haul business unviable, it said.
The airline will instead focus on its Nordic and European short-haul network, serving these markets with 50 narrow-body aircraft in 2021, and increasing those to 70 in 2022. Through a restructuring, Norwegian targets reducing its debt to 20bn kroner ($2.35bn) and to raise Nkr4bn-5bn in new capital. It said it will continue to assess profitable opportunities.
The restructuring comes after Norwegian warned of significant insolvency risk and filed for bankruptcy protection in Ireland in November, which it now hopes to exit. The airline also re-initiated talks with the Norwegian government about financial aid.
In December, Norwegian's passenger demand fell by 94pc to just over 129,000, and its capacity was down by 98pc on the year.
