Norwegian Air International (Dublin International) has announced it will terminate its Edinburgh-Hartford Bradley service with the last flight scheduled to be operated on March 24, 2018, blaming the Scottish government’s postponement of a reduction in air passenger duties.
The Norwegian (Oslo Gardermoen) unit has operated 2x weekly transatlantic flights to Hartford Bradley since June 2018 using B737-8 equipment. It is currently one of two flights connecting the airport in Connecticut with Europe, the other being an Aer Lingus service to Dublin International.
Norwegian also plans to reduce frequencies on flights from Edinburgh to each of Newburgh and Providence, currently operated 3x and 2x weekly respectively.
While the Scottish government declared its intention to initially halve and eventually scrap the British Air Passenger Duty (APD) in relation to flights departing from Scotland, the enactment of this plan has been blocked by legal issues. In June 2017 the Scottish parliament approved the act devolving the responsibility for the tax collection from the central British government to Scotland, but any changes in relation to the tax rate first need to be approved by the European Commission. This is due to the fact that passengers departing from airports in the Scottish Highlands and Islands are exempt from the levy, which could be considered state aid to those airports under European Union law.
The APD's current rate - GBP13 (USD17.9) or GBP26 per passenger on short-haul flights depending on the class of travel and GBP75 or GBP150 on long-haul routes - is the highest aviation tax in Europe.
