Because the Irish and the Chinese are only transitional owners, Norway needs an airline to connect the regions to each other and to the outside world, SAS needs a competitor to keep prices down, nobody in Scandi wants or trusts Ryanair and an airline serving just Norway does not have the size and economies of scale to be competitive. Having shafted the foreigners with the debt equity swap Norwegians will buy back the company for 1 Kroner and go on to make a nice pile.