Norwegian (Oslo Gardermoen) has announced it has dropped its route from Stockholm Arlanda to Las Vegas Harry Reid and will also terminate service to Oakland International, blaming an aviation tax imposed by the Swedish centre-left government in April, Business Insider Nordic has reported.
The carrier has said that the tax, amounting to SEK250 krona (USD28.4) per passenger one-way, and payable on both departure and arrival, constitutes a heavy financial burden given its low fares.
While the service to Las Vegas has already been cancelled, the route to Oakland remains operational for the time being as a 3x weekly service operated with B787-9 aircraft and will only be cancelled prior to the commencement of the Winter 2018/19 season.
"Then we’ll see if it will be put into service again or not. However, the route continues from the other two Scandinavian countries, Norway and Denmark, with great connections to Sweden and Stockholm," Head of Communications and Public Affairs for Sweden and Finland Charlotte Holmbergh Jacobsson told ch-aviation in a statement.
The carrier's transatlantic network out of Stockholm also includes flights to Fort Lauderdale International, Los Angeles International, and New York JFK.
According to the Swedish media, some commentators pointed out that the cancellation of these two routes may have been caused not by the tax, but by Norwegian's poor financial standing. In 2017, the carrier lost NOK1.8 billion krona (USD220 million) and it had a total net debt of NOK22.3 billion at the end of the year.
