The only carrier that offered direct flights to Europe from Hamilton will soon discontinue service at John C. Munro airport in the fall.
Low-cost carrier Norwegian Airlines announced on Tuesday that it will discontinue transatlantic flights between Ireland and North America with its last Hamilton flight to Ireland leaving Sept 13.
In a statement, Norwegian said the airline was making the change in its business plan due to the grounding of its Boeing 737 MAX planes.
“Compounded by the global grounding of the 737 MAX and the continued uncertainty of its return to service, this has led us to make the difficult decision to discontinue all six routes from Dublin, Cork and Shannon to the US and Canada,” Norwegian said in a release.
The airline went on to say it had “tirelessly” looked for replacement aircraft to continue its runs in and out of Hamilton, but with the return to service date of the 737 MAX uncertain, the airline decided the routes to North America were “unsustainable.”
The decision means Hamilton is down to just four passenger carriers — Swoop, Westjet, Air Transat, and Sunwing — offering flights in and out of Hamilton.
“We are assisting customers by ensuring they can still get to their destination by rerouting them onto other Norwegian services,” the airline said in its statement,
“Customers will also be offered a full refund if they no longer wish to travel. We will continue to offer scheduled services from Dublin to Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen as normal.”
The decision also sees its Ireland service discontinue on Sept. 14 from Stewart Airport in New York’s Hudson Valley and from Providence, Rhode Island at the T.F. Green Airport.
Dina Carlucci, the Airport’s Marketing & Communications Director, told Global News the Hamilton-Dublin route offered by Norwegian, was a seasonal service and was already scheduled to end 2019 service on September 13.
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