(Adds detail, background)
OSLO, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Budget airline Norwegian Air
is ending flights from Copenhagen and Stockholm to the
United States and Thailand due to weak demand and technical
problems affecting the engines on its Boeing 787
Dreamliners, it said on Wednesday.
Flights between Oslo and the U.S. will continue, it added.
"Scandinavia isn't big enough to maintain intercontinental
flights from Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen," Senior Vice
President Commercial Matthew Wood said in a statement.
Norwegian has shaken up the market for transatlantic travel
with low fares to challenge traditional carriers such as IAG's
British Airways, but rapid expansion left it with high
debts.
To stem its losses, the company has cut unprofitable routes
and said last month it will reduce capacity by 10% next year,
the first time in its near two-decade history Norwegian has
planned to shrink.
Britain's Rolls-Royce said in September it would take
longer than expected to fix problems with its Trent 1000 engine,
which were caused by poor durability of turbine blade
components.
"We have for a time been struggling with the Rolls-Royce
engines on our long-distance aircraft, which means we need to
keep more planes on the ground. This affects our route
schedule," Norwegian's Wood said.
Norwegian said it will increase the frequency with which it
flies from several European cities to U.S. destinations,
although it did not provide specific plans.
On Nov. 12 the company announced non-stop routes from
Chicago to Rome and Paris, and between Denver and Rome.
(Reporting by Victoria Klesty; Editing by Terje Solsvik and Jan
Harvey)