On Tuesday, the airline Norwegian announced that it is about to go through a significant firing round amongst its employees in Copenhagen Airport.
In total, 123 employees will be let go: 53 pilots and 70 members of the cabin crew. The vast majority can expect their contract to end on 31 January 2027.
In an interview with Finans, head of the Flight Personnel Union, Thilde Waast, warned this could be the start of a new trend.
Second-biggest airline
According to Finans, Norwegian is the second-biggest airline in Copenhagen Airport, responsible for the journeys of roughly 15% of the total passengers, the biggest airline being the pan-Scandinavian SAS.
Ahead of the firing round, the airline employed 230 pilots and 400 members of the cabin crew who had a main base in Copenhagen. After conversations between the company and the Flight Personnel Union ended, those numbers are about to decrease a fair bit.
“Sad day for Norwegian”
Speaking to Finans on Tuesday, Sara Neergaard, country manager for Norwegian in Denmark, said, “It is a sad day for Norwegian, and I am incredibly affected on behalf of the impacted employees. But there is no other way. The layoffs are happening out of necessity.”
The explanation for the firing is that more competition from other airlines has made it more difficult for Norwegian to keep employees on during the normally less profitable autumn and winter months.
Neergaard was also not shy to blame the union for what she sees as its role in the firings, saying the union “was not interested in negotiating a solution involving seasonal contracts, under which employees would work more in the summer and less in the winter.”
The union responds
In a separate piece in the same media outlet, union head Thilde Waast said, “I feel very sorry for my colleagues. Losing your job is really tough, and these layoffs have major consequences not only for the employees affected, but also for their families.”
She acknowledges the structural problems that Neergaard touched on in her interview. However, Waast still criticises the company’s approach, especially its approach to Danish workers.
She suggests that “With 123 layoffs, the number of aircraft is reduced to ten. In the summer season that rises to 16 by serving Copenhagen with six planes that bring in crew from Spain and Latvia.”
Waast worries that this is the beginning of the company starting to put more emphasis on bases outside of Scandinavia.
