Norwegian Cuts 4,000 Flights and Lays Off Half of Employees

Norwegian Air said it will scrap 4,000 flights and temporarily lay off around half its employees due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. Travel restrictions and falling demand due to the virus are increasingly hurting the airline industry specifically.

On top of that, yesterday the U.S. introduced sweeping restrictions on travel from the European mainland for the next 30 days in a bid to halt the spread of coronavirus.

Norwegian is one of the first low cost airlines to launch transatlantic flights back in 2013. The latest ban is another severe blow to Norwegian, the largest foreign airline serving the New York region and several other U.S. cities and offering low fares to Europe.

The company said that following the U.S. ban on travel from most of Europe and the escalating coronavirus situation, it will ground 40% of its long-haul fleet and cancel up to 25% of its short-haul flights until the end of May. The changes apply to the company’s entire route network.