The Norwegian airline grows again in Spain after the ERE that it applied in June 2021 and that led to the dismissal of 800 workers (65% of the workforce in the country), as well as the closure of its base in Barcelona, ??the main center of company operations until then.
Two years later and after the air crisis caused by the pandemic, Norwegian has reopened its base in El Prat, operational since May 1, although only for short-haul flights, since the airline abandoned intercontinental trips as a result of its restructuring plan. It is a seasonal base only active during the summer season that the company is testing right now, but the strength of the demand to fly has convinced it to maintain it in 2024, Norwegian confirmed this Thursday.
It has also announced the opening of a fourth base in Spain, at the Palma de Mallorca airport, which closed in 2019 and will open again next year. With this, the airline will have four bases in Spain (Barcelona, ??Alicante, Malaga and Mallorca).
In El Prat the operation is modest, with only two aircraft based, “but quite satisfactory”, they comment from the airline. In total, in May they transported 57,408 passengers in Barcelona, ??according to company data. These are 29% more passengers than in 2019 (44,414 in total) and 24.7% of the total passengers transported by Norwegian in Spain last month, indicate the Aena data recalculated by this newspaper.
Alicante, with 67,683 passengers in major, is its largest base in Spain at present. In Malaga they transported 27,623 travelers in May, while in Mallorca, which still does not have a base, they moved 27,623 people according to data from Aena.
