Europe longhaul LCCs: Norwegian cuts, Eurowings exits

In late Nov-2019 Norwegian announced the cessation of its long haul operations from Copenhagen and Stockholm from the start of the summer season at the end of Mar-2020. Its long haul network from the two cities comprises routes to the US and the Thai capital Bangkok.

Norwegian will also suspend its Oslo to Bangkok service for the coming summer and is reviewing this route and its winter-only service from Oslo to the Thai leisure destination Krabi for winter 2020/2021. Its US routes from Oslo will continue.

Norwegian is the leading European long haul low cost operator by number of seats and routes. Its cuts to its intercontinental network come as Lufthansa prepares to pull the long haul routes of its Eurowings subsidiary into its Network Airlines division and to rebrand Eurowings' long haul operations to differentiate them from the low cost market segment.

Eurowings is Europe's number two long haul low cost operator by route numbers and ranks third by seats. It is planning growth next summer, but its exit from the LCC sector will leave Western Europe with IAG's LEVEL, French Bee, and a reduced Norwegian as its only long haul low cost operators.