Norwegian Further Reduces Service From Northeastern Airports

Last year Norwegian rapidly expanded its US service by focusing on serving smaller airports outside of large cities. It launched transatlantic service from three smaller northeastern airports using narrow-body Boeing 737s to keep costs low.

In January, the budget airline announced that it was pulling out of Hartford (BDL) altogether and would be reducing frequencies on other routes, too.

Now, Norwegian has told TPG that it's making even more cuts from Providence (PVD) and New York Stewart (SWF). It will cut winter service on four routes — Norwegian will only operate seasonal summer flights on the following routes:

• Providence (PVD) to Edinburgh (EDI)
• Providence (PVD) to Cork (ORK)
• Providence (PVD) to Shannon (SNN)
• New York Stewart (SWF) to Belfast (BFS)

A Norwegian spokesman tells us that the 2018 summer season is already in operation, meaning we won't see the cuts until October 2018. It currently operates 17 weekly flights to European destinations from Providence (PVD). It will continue to run daily flights between Providence (PVD) and Dublin (DUB) year-round.

Norwegian says that flights were cut due to low demand and to "better focus on profitability" — it's also a possible result of expanding too fast. Norwegian might need the aircraft to operate on more profitable routes.

Daily Newsletter

Reward your inbox with the TPG Daily newsletter

Join over 700,000 readers for breaking news, in-depth guides and exclusive deals from TPG’s experts

Email address

Sign up

By signing up, you will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.

We've reviewed Norwegian's 737-800 on a flight from New York City's regional Stewart Airport (SWF) to Edinburgh (EDI) and thought it made for a solid experience on a transatlantic flight, especially considering the low price.

It remains to be seen if the airline's strategy of operating small aircraft from less popular airports will work. Norwegian recently added 787 service on four long-haul routes but all from major airports. Although, it will be adding an extra daily flight from New York Stewart (SWF) to Dublin (DUB) this month.