Norwegian Air continues to shape its North America route offerings, with a sharp change in it 737-based routes to smaller U.S. cities. The line is dropping its routes between Edinburgh and Belfast and its two U.S. small-city bases at New York/Newburgh and Providence, RI.
The flights have not done as well as Norwegian expected, in part because while the two U.S. cities are on the fringe of major metropolitan areas, Edinburgh and Belfast are smaller markets and have limited air connections to other cities. Norwegian also points out that it had expected a sharp drop in the passenger tax in Scotland.
However, some of its small-plane routes are doing well and will remain. Providence-to-Dublin is a year-round route with seasonal service as well to Cork and Shannon. Newburgh has year-round service to Dublin and Shannon and to Bergen, Norway. The Dublin service is twice-a-day. Norwegian chief Bjorn Kos has indicated that Newburgh may soon get additional routes.
While Norwegian also has new U.S. destinations planned for its fleet of larger 787s, it has said that after the next round of added cities it will concentrate on adding more flights to existing routes for a while.
