Norwegian Air drops U.S. flights from Copenhagen and Stockholm

Norwegian Air will end all transatlantic flying from Copenhagen and Stockholm, including one of its first-ever U.S. routes as it looks towards a more profitable long-haul network.

The Oslo-based low-cost carrier will not resume service to Fort Lauderdale (FLL), Los Angeles (LAX), New York John F. Kennedy (JFK), Oakland (OAK), and Orlando (MCO) from both Copenhagen (CPH) and Stockholm (ARN) in 2020, spokesman Anders Lindström confirmed to TPG. All of the routes are flown with Boeing 787 jets.

"The demand for transatlantic travel to and from the Nordics is limited compared to larger European markets and not sufficient enough to justify a large nonstop intercontinental operation out of three Scandinavian cities: Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen," he said. "For summer 2020 and beyond, our five U.S. routes to/from Oslo will remain."

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Norwegian flies between Oslo and Fort Lauderdale, Los Angeles, New York, Oakland, and Orlando.

Lindström also cited continuing operational issues with the Rolls-Royce engines on its fleet of 787s for the decision to cull the Copenhagen and Stockholm routes.

Norwegian ended service on nearly all of the routes in October as part of the seasonal adjustments it makes to its transatlantic network during the winter, Cirium data shows. Only flights between Stockholm and Fort Lauderdale will operate through the winter before ending on March 27.

Related: Norwegian Air adds more Europe flights from Chicago and Denver

The Nordic route cull comes as Norwegian's six-year old transatlantic network matures. After beginning with just flights to New York from Oslo and Stockholm, the airline flew 48 routes between Europe and the U.S. this summer. Many of those were other large European cities such as London, Paris and Rome.

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For 2020, Norwegian is doubling down on some of Europe's largest transatlantic gateways. New flights are planned between Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) and both Austin (AUS) and Chicago O'Hare (ORD), and between Rome (FCO) and Chicago and Denver (DEN). At the same time, service between Ireland and the Stewart International Airport (SWF) in Newburgh, New York, and Providence (PVD) will not resume. Flights between Madrid and JFK will end in March.

Norwegian's capacity to the U.S. will be down about 2% year-over-year during the three-month peak June-August period in 2020, according to Cirium.

Related: Exciting New Airline Routes for October 2019 and Beyond

"As Norwegian moves from growth to profitability, we take a strict approach to route management and continue to constantly evaluate route performance to ensure we meet customer demand," Lindström said about the network changes.

Despite Norwegian's exit, travelers will continue to have nonstop flights on other airlines to Copenhagen and Stockholm from Los Angeles, New York and the San Francisco Bay Area. Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) serves Miami (MIA) and Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) from both Nordic cities, as well as San Francisco (SFO) from Copenhagen, Cirium shows. SAS serves Los Angeles from Stockholm but will shift the flight to Copenhagen in January.

Delta Air Lines also flies between JFK and Copenhagen, and United Airlines between Newark and Stockholm, according to schedules.

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