Originally Posted by
Flightrider
Norwegian knew the APD situation when they started the routes. I'm told that they had apparently under-estimated the impact this would have ex US in particular, where they started to sell the same lead-in fares ex PVD and SWF to EDI as for DUB, ORK, SNN and BFS but of course, APD has to be deducted ex EDI. Unsurprisingly their yields are far stronger at the other airports than EDI, therefore capacity is being switched across.
They knew the score when they launched but missed a beat by recognising the impact of APD - and you can hardly blame the Scottish Government for that one.
The Boston/New York area has a very strong connection to Ireland, so it should hardly be surprising that yield on the Irish routes is higher than on the Scottish routes.
Norwegian's decision has nothing to do with APD; it's simply a case of demand.
There is a lot more demand for transatlantic flights to the US East Coast from Ireland than there is from Scotland. Edinburgh and Glasgow already have an impressive offering to New York, and there's simply not enough demand to support all of these flights. The fact that United have reduced their GLA-EWR service to summer seasonal is evidence of this.
Furthermore, Norwegian's decision to operate three routes meant that the base was doomed to fail from the outset. BDL was only served from EDI, meaning it received a lot less advertising and brand awareness. Also, the fact that BDL is exactly halfway between SWF and PVD meant that passenger demand was split between three routes, instead of just two from BFS, DUB or SNN.