Norwegian is cutting 123 jobs at Copenhagen Airport, dismissing 53 pilots and 70 cabin crew after talks with their union ended without an agreement.
The Norwegian airline has decided to carry out the dismissals at its Copenhagen base, DR reported on October 27, citing the business outlet Finans. The decision came after Norwegian concluded its discussions with Flyvebranchens Personale Union, the FPU, which organizes the affected staff.
Per DR, Norwegian’s country manager in Denmark, Sara Neergaard, called it a sad day for the company and said she was deeply affected on behalf of the employees. She also said there was no other way, and that the dismissals were being made out of necessity.
The cuts will be carried out in stages. According to The Copenhagen Post, most of the dismissals are planned for the end of January 2027, with the remainder expected around ten months later.
Why Norwegian is shrinking its Copenhagen summer fleet
Norwegian will reduce the number of aircraft based in Copenhagen during the summer half of the year from 16 to 14. As reported by TV 2, the company points to the large gap between summer and winter traffic volumes from Copenhagen.
Where the summer peak requires 16 aircraft, the winter need is only 10, according to DR. The airline is not cutting the number of summer departures from Copenhagen. Instead, some summer routes will in future be flown by aircraft based in Spain.
The industry site Check-in.dk reported a week earlier that 125 employees at the Copenhagen base were at risk. Politiken confirms the final figure of 123 and the split between pilots and cabin crew.
Union and company disagree on what was offered
FPU chair Thilde Waast sees the dismissals as an attempt to undermine Danish working conditions. In a written reply cited by DR, she claims Norwegian wants to replace its Danish employees with cheaper Spanish labor.
Neergaard rejects the idea that the union sought compromise during the negotiations. She told Finans that FPU was not interested in seasonal contracts, under which staff would work more in summer and less in winter, nor in a voluntary leave arrangement. Both options together, she said, would have reduced the number of dismissals.
Copenhagen Airport’s most recent accounts, covering last year, list Norwegian as the second largest carrier at the airport by share of total passengers. SAS served 38 percent of air travelers, Norwegian 15 percent and Ryanair 9 percent. With 16 aircraft, Copenhagen has until now been Norwegian’s second largest base after Oslo, with flights to 77 destinations last year.
What the layoffs mean for foreign aviation staff in Denmark
Aviation jobs in Denmark are largely covered by collective agreements negotiated by unions such as FPU, and dismissals are handled through formal consultations like the ones that just ended. Cash unemployment benefits, dagpenge, are not automatic in Denmark. They require membership of a voluntary unemployment insurance fund, an a-kasse, which employees join and pay for themselves.
Neither DR, TV 2 nor The Copenhagen Post reports how many of the 123 affected staff are foreign nationals, and Norwegian has not published a breakdown. For non-EU employees, a Danish residence and work permit is normally tied to a specific job with a specific employer, so a dismissal and the work permit question are linked. EU and Nordic citizens working in Denmark are not subject to that permit requirement.
