Norwegian Air has stopped all Transatlantic flights from the United States to Ireland, saying the routes are not viable

The Norwegian Air Transatlantic service will discontinue from September 15, 2019. The airline says "several thousand customers" will be hit by the route closures.

RTE reports that “Norwegian Air began operating routes between Dublin, Cork, Shannon and the US, amid much fanfare, in July 2017, carrying 650,000 passengers in that time.

It is among dozens of airlines globally who have been impacted by the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX fleet, following two fatal crashes involving the aircraft.

Matthew Wood, SVP Long-Haul Commercial at Norwegian, said, "Since March, we have tirelessly sought to minimize the impact on our customers by hiring replacement aircraft to operate services between Ireland and North America. However, as the return to service date for the 737 MAX remains uncertain, this solution is unsustainable."

Wood said the airline will refund passengers in full and arrange for those who want to fly to reach their destination by other methods.

"We will continue to offer scheduled services from Dublin to Oslo, Stockholm, and Copenhagen as normal," he said.

Norwegian Air is in discussion with its 48 pilots and 86 cabin crew, at its Dublin base, about their future.

The news will once again leave Aer Lingus as a dominant carrier on the route but is bad news for Irish tourism.

The airlines' 80 Dublin-based administrative staff at Norwegian Air International and Norwegian Group's asset company, Arctic Aviation Assets, will not be affected by the route closures.