Norwegian Air Axes All Winter Flights From Belfast International Airport

Less than a year after the budget airline started operating out of Belfast International Airport, it has announced that it will be suspending all its transatlantic flights for the winter months

The airline said it had made the decision to suspend the flights due to “lower demand”. Transatlantic routes from Belfast will stop at the end of October.

There are no other direct airline routes which currently operate between Northern Ireland and the United States.

A statement from the airline said: ”Following a comprehensive review of our services, we have decided to suspend flights from Edinburgh, Cork and Shannon to Providence in addition to the Belfast-New York route during the quieter winter period due to lower demand.”

“The services will continue to assess our transatlantic route performance as we confirm the route schedule for next summer.”

Meanwhile, Dublin Airport is currently running Norwegian Air flights to the greater New York area all year round.

Prior to Norwegian launching its routes from Belfast International, United Airlines ran Northern Ireland’s only direct link to the US for years before poor financial performance rendered it unsustainable.

A £9 million rescue deal agreed by Stormont and United collapsed a few months before the route was halted because the financial package breached EU state rules.

Last month it emerged that Norwegian has applied for permission to fly to Canadian airports and could launch services from the Republic of Ireland this summer.

It has applied to the Canadian Transportation Agency for an international licence to operate a service between member states of the EU and Canada.

The airline is also suspending some of its routes from Cork, Shannon and Edinburgh for the winter.

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