Norwegian eases Spain layoffs, reopens Finland

Norwegian (DY, Oslo Gardermoen) has tempered plans, reported in early May, that it was about to dismiss 1,191 employees, or 85% of its workforce in Spain, and has reduced the required number of required redundancies to 975, the Unión Sindical Obrera (USO) said in a statement on June 14. The airline, which emerged from a convoluted bankruptcy late last month, has reached an agreement with Spanish unions after what USO described as “difficult” negotiations, to maintain 234 jobs at its bases in Alicante and Malaga, allowing these bases to stay open. USO on behalf of the cabin crew and the pilots’ union SEPLA claimed that they had managed to reduce the number of staff affected by Spain’s collective dismissal mechanism (Expediente de Regulación de Trabajo – ERE). “This agreement reduces by 200 cabin crew and 16 pilots the workers who were initially going to be included in the ERE announced by the company, going from 1,191 workers affected to 975. In this way, 200 relocations for cabin crew will be offered in the Oslo Gardermoen base, together with financial compensation for the transfer and an employment guarantee,” the cabin crew union said. For the 975 laid-off employees there will be severance pay equivalent to 30 days for every year worked, which is ten days more than the legal minimum of 20, the Spanish news agency EFE reported. Assignment to the ERE will initially be voluntary and then forced, until the numbers agreed are covered. The airline will initially base one aircraft at each of Malaga and Alicante from June 28 and will later add two more aircraft per base in summer 2022 to make six in total. The former bases at Barcelona El Prat, Las Palmas, and Tenerife Sur will remain closed. But Spain and the Nordic countries are the only two areas where Norwegian will maintain operations. Separately, Norwegian has announced that it will resume flights to Finland on June 28, from Helsinki Vantaa to Oulu, Oslo Gardermoen, Stockholm Arlanda, Malaga, and Alicante, with the prospect of “gradually adding other destinations.” “As travel restrictions begin to depart and vaccinations become more common, interest in embarking on a flight will increase,” the airline predicted. “We have noticed a growing desire among our customers to book air travel and we are gradually increasing the number of destinations in Finland.” According to the ch-aviation capacities module, Norwegian does not currently operate any flights from Helsinki, but from the week starting June 28 it will operate to Oulu and Stockholm 6x weekly each, to Malaga and Oslo 4x weekly each, and to Alicante 2x weekly.