Norwegian (Oslo Gardermoen) is grappling with the impact of delays in deliveries of B737 MAX jets from Boeing (BOE, Washington National).
The Scandinavian budget carrier's Chief Executive Officer, Bjorn Kjos, told Bloomberg in an interview that the slow rate of deliveries had forced it to defer the launch of Europe-Canada flights to Spring 2019.
According to the report, Norwegian had planned to launch the routes with two B737-8s that are now four weeks behind schedule. It is recalled that Norwegian will suspend its year-round routes from Cork, Shannon, and Edinburgh to Providence in Rhode Island for the winter months, instead concentrating on the March to October schedule for 2019.
In addition, the carrier may also delay the launch of its Norwegian Air Argentina (Buenos Aires Jorge Newbery) unit. Kjos said the Argentine start-up's debut may now be timed for the start of the high season in October instead of August as initially planned.
According to the ch-aviation fleets module, the LCC currently has one B737-800 on its AOC with another due in the coming weeks.