The Norwegian airline will reopen its base at Barcelona airport after the closure in 2021 as a result of its restructuring plan, which resulted in an ERE for 65% of the workforce in Spain. The opening is scheduled for the next air summer season, which runs from March to October 2023, although sources from the Scandinavian company indicate that the new planes will start flying around the month of May.
It will therefore be a seasonal base, not permanent, and will only cover routes with the Nordic countries -Norwegian has no plans to return to the long haul-. The movement, however, responds to a gradual recovery in demand to travel to Barcelona. The company has maintained flights between the Catalan capital and Scandinavia despite the closure of the base in 2021. This summer it has offered 40 routes between the Nordic countries and Spain compared to 28 last summer, of which six are destined for Barcelona. This represents some 16,000 flights until October, with three million seats and 70 planes.
The response has been positive and the planes leaving or arriving in Barcelona from Norway or Denmark have a high occupancy rate.
Now, El Prat will have more flights and will strengthen its capacity and connectivity with the Nordic market. With this, Norwegian will have eight aircraft based in Spain next summer season: three in Alicante, as many in Malaga, and two in Barcelona.
The reopening of the base in Barcelona will also entail the hiring of between 60 and 70 crew members in Spain, between pilots and cabin crew (TCP). Most of the new additions will be covered by former airline employees affected by last year's ERE.
In Europe as a whole, Norwegian will hire 300 new pilots and 500 new TCPs throughout 2023, the year in which it will incorporate 15 new aircraft, increasing its fleet from 70 to 85 Boeing 737 units, the airline reported this Thursday.
The airline had come to have five short-haul aircraft and another four long-haul based at Barcelona airport. In all of 2019, it transported 8,342,616 passengers in Spain, according to company data, 1,750,071 million in El Prat. This 2022, after going from five to two bases, to date it has transported 1,635,000 passengers throughout Spain, 230,224 in Barcelona. With the new operation scheduled for 2023, it hopes to improve these figures and accelerate its growth in Barcelona.
Norwegian had played a prominent role in the arrival of tourism to Spain in recent years, promoting intercontinental flights from Barcelona, but internal business problems added to the pandemic left it on the verge of bankruptcy.
After a forceful restructuring process, public aid and an ERE that resulted in the dismissal of 65% of the workforce in Spain – its around 1,300 workers were in ERTE for more than a year, with the consequent tax exemptions for the company– It is growing again, as its CEO, Geir Karlsen, told La Vanguardia a few months ago.
