Norwegian cancels 3,000 flights and sheds staff

Norwegian is cancelling about three,000 flights till mid-June following a drop in demand from customers from the coronavirus outbreak.

That is about 15pc of the airline’s whole capacity for this period of time.

The firm has also place many other steps in location, including short term layoffs of a “important share of its workforce”.

Affected prospects will be informed about cancellations.

Chief executive Jacob Schram claimed: “Unfortunately, cancellations will have an effect on a important share of our colleagues at Norwegian. We have initiated official consultations with our unions about short term layoffs for traveling crew members as very well as staff on the ground and in the workplaces.”

He included: “This is a crucial time for the aviation sector, including us at Norwegian. We really encourage the authorities to straight away apply steps to imminently decrease the economic burden on the airways in order to guard critical infrastructure and work opportunities.”

The Telegraph noted on Sunday that Arrowstreet Capital, a $106bn (£81bn) hedge fund released by United kingdom-born Harvard professor John Campbell, is amongst buyers betting Norwegian will be the next airline to are unsuccessful.

Various airways have slashed capacity to and from Italy in the wake of the nationwide lockdown introduced on Monday.

Ryanair will suspend all flights till April 8, whilst British Airways has also stopped traveling to Italy.

EasyJet continues to run a compact quantity of flights to the country.