Norwegian Group is considering furloughing a substantial number of its London Gatwick-based pilots due to the ongoing grounding of B787s, the Financial Times has reported.
The carrier has reportedly already reached out to the British Air Line Pilots' Association (BALPA) with an invitation to discuss potential options. The airline is considering offering pilots unpaid leave of absences for up to a year, a yearly "career break", or part-time work.
"We have had positive discussions with our pilots and the unions regarding the options that are available to them and we are all working together to ensure that redundancies remain a last resort," Norwegian said.
Norwegian currently has as much as 300 redundant staff based out of Gatwick.
According to the ch-aviation fleets module, Norwegian UK (London Gatwick) currently operates thirteen B787-9s, while Norwegian (Oslo Gardermoen) operates eight B787-8s and fourteen -9s. None of them is in long-term storage, although the group is systematically grounding up to six aircraft at a time for short-term maintenance and does not operate the entire fleet simultaneously. Norwegian UK is also wet-leasing four widebody aircraft to cover for the absent B787-9s, namely one A330-200 from Wamos Air, one A330-300 from Evelop Airlines (Palma de Mallorca), one A340-300 from Hi Fly Malta, and one B777-200(ER) from Privilege Style.
