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Norwegian closing all of its Irish routes due to Boeing 737 MAX woes

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Norwegian is pruning routes quite heavily as part of its ‘from growth to profitability’ initiative.

In simple terms, this means getting rid of routes where it is losing money.  Gatwick to Las Vegas was given the chop recently, for example, as we covered here.

The airline has just announced that all of its long-haul Irish routes are closing.  These are:

  • Dublin to Hamilton, Newburgh and Providence
  • Cork to Providence
  • Shannon to Newburgh and Providence

Norwegian closing irish routes

The last flights will take place on 15th September.

To be fair to Norwegian, this is a decision partly forced on them by the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX.  It was used to fly these routes which meant that Norwegian had already temporarily suspended or sourced alternative aircraft for them.

If the Norwegian story does not end well, people will be debating for years whether it was actually the fault of Boeing.

Norwegian planned to offer low cost long haul flights by investing in ultra fuel efficient new aircraft which would let it undercut its rivals.  Unfortunately, it chose two complete dogs – the Boeing 787 (Rolls-Royce engine variant) and Boeing 737 MAX – which has left large parts of its fleet unable to fly.

Comments (144)

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  • Gavin says:

    O/T

    Can anyone suggest a cheap place which will check you in automatically to keep hotels.com credit alive?

  • memesweeper says:

    Starling has announced it’s ending debit card top ups from mid-next month. Any known alternatives with a similar outcome?

    • Harry T says:

      Monese. Didn’t realise you could top up Starling with debit card – will explore this whilst it still exists.

      • Memesweeper says:

        £ 250/day limit. Enough to cover those annoying direct debits from firms that won’t take any form of card payment.

  • Munch says:

    OT Anyone receiving emails about points transfers from their Marriott accounts? Very odd nothing shows in my account. Not sure if its a glitch?

    • mart says:

      we had them strange?

    • Mark2 says:

      I think that they relate to very old transactions.

    • Relaxo says:

      yeah it was an alert for transfers I made 6 months ago! freaked me out for a second.

    • Alan says:

      Sadly seems to be about transfers from about a year ago! Disappointed, was hoping it was some free points!

    • C F Frost says:

      My surprise points email is particularly weird. Must have been from years ago. The history page doesn’t go back far enough. They’ve also mashed up my wife and I into a new identity. So it’s an email to me telling me that someone with my first name and my wife’s surname has shared 72,000 points with me. Very odd.

    • guesswho2000 says:

      I got one overnight (AEST) about a transfer between my and my OH’s account from several months ago. Was secretly hoping they’d doubled it, no such luck.

      My Marriott Balance make for sorry reading, churning the SPG card, and 30% buy Starpoints bonuses kept me flush for a few years, now I’m kind of stuck!

  • Sina says:

    Between me and my wife, we have 6 cards, Platinum, Gold Charge, Gold Credit card, Gold Supp, Platinum supp, and Green supp, no offer on any of them for the past 3 months! And there is plenty of spend on all cards, I had £5k spend last month on the gold card only, and I’ve tried removing and adding the card again on the same account and a new online account, and have tried replacing the card, none of which made any difference!

    I talked to Amex and they say its normal!!

    Any Ideas what to do? or how to resolve this? any idea will be appreciated!

    • BJ says:

      It’s not normal. I suggest one of you call to cancel all your cards except one. It will either get a result or not. If not then go ahead and cancel them, you can always take advantage of referral bonuses. Repeat for OH when appropriate.

    • Tracy says:

      I’ve had this for a while too, used to get lots of offers on my BAPP as did the supplementary card holder, now we have none. Same with my SPG….thinking they don’t really want me as a card holder, which I am happy to oblige with as soon as last months points have transferred. Going from 8 cards (I know it’s too many but included supps) to zero in a matter of months. Even cancelling the BAPP which I have held continuously for 3 years 🙁

  • Andrew says:

    Off topic: is it possible to turn around on a back to back on the A350 Madrid flights – with 1hr 20mins between the flights?

  • BJ says:

    OT: First Group taking over West Coast from Virgin in December.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49341772

    • Michael says:

      This is depressing.

      • BJ says:

        Agreed, it is beyond me why any companies who fail in running a franchise are even allowed to bid to run another.

        • Mark2 says:

          It is civil servants who are running the bidding process. It is the same with all government contracts.

        • guesswho2000 says:

          Very difficult to blacklist a company if they meet any prequal requirements. And prequal requirements can’t just be ‘did a sh1t job once before’.

          • Spaghetti Town says:

            I seriously don’t understand how the rail network is so awful in this country compared to the continent.

          • Lady London says:

            Yes but you can incluse a criterion for prequal that will allow you to disqualify them. And if they did bid you could include scoring that could take such issues into account.

  • Alex says:

    Is the supermarket available on different supermarkets or once only

  • Optimus Prime says:

    OT – when going from Greenwich to Gatwick via London Bridge, can I simply change platforms in London Bridge or do I have to touch out and touch back in?

    • Lady London says:

      Underground and mainline rail have separate gates for each at London Bridge and if using both you have to touch in/out at each set of gates.

      • The Original David says:

        Not sure which bit of Greenwich you’re starting from, but have you checked if going via New Cross Gate might be quicker? It’s a lot cheaper because you’ll avoid Zone 1, and you can sometimes save a bit more with the East Croydon Barrier Shuffle.

      • Optimus Prime says:

        Sorry, I should have given more details.

        I mean to get the train from Greenwich railway station (next to the Novotel), 2 stops to London Bridge and then the train from London Bridge to Gatwick (usually departing from platform 4).

        I’m asking because if I enter Greenwich-Gatwick in the National Railway website it quotes more than entering Greenwich-London Bridge and London Bridge-Gatwick separately.

        • Lady London says:

          Some tickets are just like that. see ticketysplit on MSE (it’s been renamed to something else but google should find it and it’s very useful). So it’s not unheard of that a split ticket is cheaper. Just make sure that the train/you actually makes a stop at the split point which is clear in your case.

          It sounds like you are all on national rail and not the underground so you should just be able to change platforms. The other poster’s idea about checking out New Cross Gate as a changing point also sounded interesting.

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