Norwegian Air will discontinue its remaining service from
New York Stewart and Providence airports next month due to the ongoing
grounding of the Boeing 737 Max.
The last flights to Dublin from Stewart (located about 60
miles north of Manhattan) and Providence will depart on Sept. 14.
"Since March, we have tirelessly sought to minimize the
impact on our customers by hiring so-called wet-leasing replacement aircraft to
operate services between North America and Ireland," said Matthew Robert
Wood, Norwegian's senior vice president commercial long-haul and new markets. "However,
as the return to service date for the 737 Max remains uncertain, this solution
is unsustainable."
At the time of the Max grounding in mid-March, the discount
transatlantic carrier was also selling 737 Max flights between Providence and
the Irish cities of Shannon and Cork, as well as between Stewart and Shannon.
But the grounding forced a quick suspension of those services.
Norwegian will also suspend its only other remaining
transatlantic Max route -- between Hamilton, Ontario and Dublin -- in
September.
The carrier said there will be no changes to the 46 routes
it flies between the U.S. and Europe using Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
With its end of service from Stewart and Providence,
Norwegian will have pulled out of all 12 routes it began flying in 2017 between
small to mid-sized Northeast airports and Europe using the single-aisle Max
aircraft. The carrier initially flew six routes from Providence, five from
Stewart and one from Hartford.