It was in 2017 that Norwegian began their flights to three destinations on the eastern seaboard of the US, and now they have announced that without changes to Air Passenger Duty they cannot continue, and will stop all routes in the spring.
With destinations in Hartford Connecticut, Stewart International in upstate New York and Providence Rhode Island, their service was a new and welcome addition to the routes from Edinburgh Airport, with great prices for transatlantic travellers.
But it is not too late to snap up a bargain as the airline is about to start daily flights to Stewart International from 28 October 2018, perfect for a shopping trip to NYC which we are off to try out later this week so watch this space.
A Norwegian spokesperson said: “Following a comprehensive review of our services from Edinburgh, we have decided to withdraw routes to the New York and Boston areas, Barcelona and Tenerife with the last flights departing on 30 March 2019.
“Our affordable US flights were launched with the prospect of a reduction in air passenger taxes that was unfortunately postponed by The Scottish Government and this has led us to fully withdraw our transatlantic services. We continually monitor and evaluate routes across our network, and as such we have also decided to withdraw routes from Edinburgh to Barcelona and Tenerife allowing us to focus on maintaining better-performing flights to Scandinavia.
“As a growing airline, we are engaging with our Edinburgh-based crew about opportunities to relocate into other markets where air passenger taxes do not present a barrier to our transatlantic growth. Norwegian will continue to offer Scottish consumers direct, affordable flights to Scandinavia. Our withdrawal of transatlantic services from Edinburgh is a casing point that a reduction in air passenger taxes can foster lower fares for passengers and improve Scotland’s global connectivity.”
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
