Norwegian suspends all flights using Boeing 737 MAX aircraft

AIRLINE Norwegian has temporarily suspended all flights using the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, following the tragedy in Ethiopia earlier this week.

This follows a decision by the relevant aviation regulatory bodies to temporarily suspend operations of Boeing 737 MAX. Norwegian will not operate any flights with this aircraft type until further notice.

In a statement just issued it said: 'Following the decision by the relevant aviation regulatory bodies to temporarily suspend operations of Boeing 737 MAX, Norwegian will not operate any flights with this aircraft type until further notice. 

All aircraft that are currently airborne will continue to destination or return to home base. We are now working on re-allocating our fleet options with other aircraft types, re-bookings to other flights and combining flights to minimise inconvenience caused for our passengers.

'We would like to apologise to customers who are affected, but the safety and security of our customers and colleagues will never be compromised. Affected passengers will be informed via SMS and our web pages,' it added.

Norwegian has more than 110 Boeing 737–800 aircraft in its fleet, which is not affected by this temporary suspension.

‘We would like to apologise to customers who will be affected by temporary cancellations and delays, but the safety and security of our customers and colleagues will never be compromised, and once authorities advise to cease operations we will of course comply,’ said a spokesperson.

Tomas Hesthammer, Norwegian’s acting chief operating officer said earlier: “In response to the temporary suspension of Being 737 MAX operations by multiple aviation authorities we have taken the decision to not operate flights using this aircraft type until advised otherwise by the relevant aviation authorities. We would like to apologise to customers for any inconvenience caused, however, safety will always remain our top priority.’

Norwegian operates the 737 MAX on some of its transatlantic flights from Ireland.

However, it is not yet known how this will affect its Cork Airport to Providence route which recommences for the summer schedule on April 2nd and is due to run until October 26th.

Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 crashed just minutes after take-off on Sunday, killing 157 people.  

It was the second time in a matter of months that a 737 Max 8 crashed after takeoff, the earlier incident was in Indonesia in October, killing all 189 people on board.