More than 300 Widerøe flights cancelled in July

Værnes airport.Photo:: Gorm Kallestad / NTB scanpix

More than 300 Widerøe flights cancelled in July

So far in July, Widerøe Airline has had to cancel 342 departures, which is more than the company had calculated with in advance.

The cancellations amount to approximately 5% of the airline’s total scheduled July flights, according to NRK news.
‘It gives us a regularity of 95.6%, and of course, that’s not good enough, the target for July was 98%,’ said Communication and Social Affairs Director at Widerøe, Silje Brandvoll.

It’s estimated that 50% of cancellations were due to lack of personnel, but the weather has also created problems for the company. By comparison, 285 departures were cancelled in July last year.

The Ministry of Transport awaits Widerøe’s quarterly report. Political advisor, Rikard Gaarder Knutsen of Fremsrittspartiet (Frp), said they’ll investigate whether the flight numbers were in line with the contract between Widerøe and the ministry.

The Ministry of Transport and Communications has a contract with the company for several so-called FOT routes.

Widerøe: Not enough crew

‘I don’t dare to say anything for sure until we’ve received the report, to see which of these involved FOT routes. However, 350 cancellations are a significant number, and have consequences for flight passengers who live a distance from airports.

It is very regrettable’, said Knutsen.
Early in July, Widerøe announced that they’d had to cancel about 100 departures during the month due to lack of crew. So far,there is no notification in advance of cancellations in August.

 

© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today