Norwegian regrets to inform that it was not possible to reach an agreement in the mediation between Norwegian’s subsidiary Norwegian Air Norway (NAN) and Norwegian Pilot Union (NPU). Norwegian’s goal is still to operate all flights on Saturday and Sunday as planned, as only a limited number of pilots are on strike this weekend.

Prior to the mediation, Norwegian had proposed several essential cost reductions to ensure a sustainable company and secure jobs in the future. Unfortunately, NPU/Parat did not meet these criteria. Instead, they had demands that conflicted with the collective agreement signed in 2013. NPU’s goal has been to control the company and the company’s production, obtain a collective agreement in a company they are not employed by, and that the Norwegian collective agreement should also apply outside Norway. Norwegian could not agree with the requirement of a common seniority list for all pilots; i.e. seniority in a company they are not employed in. In practice, this would mean that Scandinavian pilots could have an unfair advantage over colleagues at other bases in Europe.

“We would like to apologise to our passengers for the uncertainty this situation has caused. Our goal has always been to avoid a strike. Our wish has been to work out a common platform that takes into account the tough competition in the industry, secure everyone’s jobs and build a strong company for the future. We will now do everything we can to ensure that all our passengers are taken care of in the best possible way,” says Norwegian CEO Bjørn Kjos.

Norwegian’s goal is to operate all flights on Saturday and Sunday as planned, as only a limited number of pilots are on strike this weekend. Pilots from the administration and pilots from our subsidiaries are on standby to ensure that only a limited number of passengers are affected.

Norwegian’s long-haul routes between Scandinavia/England and the USA/Asia will operate as normal. The conflict only applies to Norwegian’s Scandinavian subsidiary, Norwegian Air Norway (NAN).

We will do our utmost to ensure that passengers are taken care of in the best possible way according to EU regulations. Passengers can find information regarding specific routes on our Flight Status-page and general information regarding today’s traffic here.