Readers hoping to take Norwegian’s Amsterdam-New York service between now and the end of February may be disappointed.
I say that because Dutch aviation website Luchtvaartnieuws reports today that Norwegian is cutting flight frequency on this route from seven to five flights a week.
It means that during this period Norwegian will not be operating the route on a Tuesday or a Wednesday (in either direction) which are the less busy days of the week in the off-peak season.
A senior manager at Norwegian told Business Traveller, “These are tactical cancellations to preserve cash in off-peak times rather than lose money on quiet days.
“It’s also to make sure you don’t then have [the problem of dealing with] flights that go tech [encounter technical issues].”
In fact the matter of Schiphol slots is important for Norwegian’s transatlantic operation.
As readers will know, Schiphol is currently slot-constrained and more slots will not become available for some time.
Indeed it was only thanks to the EU that Norwegian’s Amsterdam-New York could get off the ground.
In the interests of promoting more competition to the existing incumbents the EU instructed KLM to provide Norwegian with a Schiphol slot.
