The ailing low-cost airline Norwegian is cutting around 1.200 jobs in Spain and closing three of five bases. Tenerife and Gran Canaria are also affected. In a statement, the company confirms that it still wants to be present in Spain.

Norwegian plans to cut exactly 1.191 employees in the country mentioned. Although the bases in the Canary Islands were on the brink before the pandemic, the scale of the downsizing is shocking the local unions. The low-cost airline wants to concentrate on traffic in the Scandinavian countries as well as holiday flights - among other things - to Spain.

The base in Barcelona, ​​which previously also operated long-haul flights, will also be closed. The company only wants to have its own employees in Alicante and Málaga. However, the size of the bases is to be reduced to one Boeing 737-800 each. It is hoped that it will be possible to expand to three machines each in the near future.

The bottom line is that the measures mean job losses for 85 percent of Norwegian employees in Spain. The USO union has already announced that it will fight for every single job. The further development therefore remains to be seen.