uncle-traveling-matt
“The customer will embrace the business model” is not the same thing as “Norwegian’s business model is financially viable“. What Willie was saying is that nobody was certain whether the punters would be keen on unbundling the Long Haul product. WW was already on record as saying that the model only worked with Level as they were able to get a quite frankly astonishingly cheap price for some end of line A330s. It was a quote more related to IAG and Level’s aspirations than a ringing endorsement of Norwegian’s attempts. In any case I’ve said it before but a market where hundred pound notes were being sold for £50 would be wildly popular but not particularly profitable!
Norwgian may or may not have been unlucky. It was their decision to order the Max just as it was their decision to opt for RR powered 787s with other providers available. If the model is not robust enough to be able to withstand shocks (and yes COVID is a rather big one but the point still stands) in an industry known to lurch from one shock to the next with alarming regularity then quite frankly the business model is fundamentally unsound and saying “we’ve been unlucky” is unwittingly a tacit admission of this fact.
Last edited by Plastic787; 18th Dec 2020 at 14:15.