The figure I heard was that Norwegian recruited around 230 or so ex Ryanair people last 12 months or so, in addition an awful lot of ex Spainair cabin crew, many who were told at 30 + they were past it by other airlines,they are very grateful for Norwegians entrance to the market and the civilised way in which they are treated, they are employed first and foremost for the safety of passenger, sale on board is a distant second, indeed on many short flights with Scandinavia. there are no sales on board.
So a lot of people have volunteered to join Norwegian to improve the quality of their lives, of course employing Thai cabin crew based in Bangkok will rankle and frankly I don't understand how that works with an Irish AOC and the right to work in Europe, if of course they are genuine slings of duty then fair enough, I think Norwegian have moved quickly to recruit American based cabin crew to deflect criticism from US groups.
My understanding is that they could just as easily use Spanish cabin crew and that the employee cost would be little different
Pilots I'm in the dark about, but if the American DOT refuse route licences I suspect that Norwegian will just restructure to meet what requirement the DOT require?
Facelookbovvered is not alone in concerns over the rate of expansion, when a crew base at LGW was announced more than a few within the company thought it was risky going up against easyJet, but I hear it has exceeded all expectation and the only regret that NAS have is not having ordered more aircraft for LGW.
Racedo knows only to well the stick that Ryanair were given over their expansion rate, yet it worked, at least financially despite many many who said it couldn't be done.
More routes to be announced shortly for LGW is the word for March and an increase in frequency for many current routes