Good luck to all Norwegian crew tomorrow. There are hardly any professional investors left among the shareholders.
It’s happy amateurs day and the result is wide open.

EGM tomorrow ? Even if the bond holders say yes, what the hell are we supposed to do for a year ?!

Wait for your temporary, summer only contract for 30% less wage. But at least you get the Rednose motivational speeches I guess.

yep, could well be.

Norwegian believe they have enough bondholders onboard for agreement.
According to stock exchange messages in english from the company here:
https://newsweb.oslobors.no/search?issuer=7628

SVT report an agreement has been made. Published 14:38 in this live thread: https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/s...-coronaviruset.

There’s life in the old dog yet!

Thats a step in the right direction, however, reading the attached "summons" it would appear a lot hangs on the valuation of the Gatwick slots. What they have is an agreement in principle to take to the EGM and bond holders meetings, what they still need is the major hurdle of the lessors agreeing to write off 500M in debts and effectively become de facto airline operators. If they secure this first round of funding it really only preserves the core operations in Norway and does nothing to address the issues of the other 160 aircraft grounded as they don't expect revenue streams to be able to support the model until late 2021. The pilots outside Norway will still be unemployed for at least a year and the proposed "flexible contracts" smack of seasonal jobs, one could reasonably expect a low basic salary plus performance and/or sector pay, having said that, the way the whole industry is looking it may be a relief to know you may possibly get your LPC done and be "on the books" even if not being paid. As most of the crews outside Norway are on some agency deal ( or were) then it falls on the agency to take the gamble on the pilots unless NAS is planning on direct hires under greatly reduced basic terms.
https://www.theguardian.com/business...ine-to-survive

Another article just released:

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.b...s-support-plan

As I predicted several months ago


Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA (the “Company”) is pleased to announce that it has received strong support from lessors for a minimum conversion to equity of USD 730 million (excluding conversion under the so-called power-by-the-hour arrangement), up from the previously announced USD 550 million. The conversion is supported by a significant number of lessors and the Company continues to discuss with other of its lessors for possible further conversion of debt to equity. The Company yesterday announced that major contributions from all bondholders have been agreed. With the significant contributions from lessors and bondholders, the Company expects to convert more than NOK 10 billion in debt to equity. With this, the Company expects to significantly outperform the 8% equity ratio requirement in the Government State Aid Package. In addition, the Company expects that the shareholders will approve a public offering of up to NOK 400 million in new equity (the “Public Offering”). The Company is also pleased to announce that it has received commitments from bondholders to subscribe a meaningful amount in the suggested Public Offering. With the conversion of more than NOK 10 billion from debt to equity now, a successfully completion of the Public Offering and significant concessions on future lease costs in the range of USD 200 million that will additionally be converted into equity, the Company has laid a solid foundation for New Norwegian and a strong return to the skies once the COVID-19 situation improves

Bondholders on board.
Leasing companies on board.
Shareholders will not vote against. Kjos told them Norwegian only have cash for 5 more days. The shareholders plan to push the Norwegian government to pay the airline 10 billion failed.
Value of current shares reduced to 5%.

After today, Norwegian will be Norwegian only in name.

Good news :)

From the Financial Times… "Norwegian closes in on debt-for-equity pact to unlock state rescue"

Norwegian closes in on debt-for-equity pact to unlock state rescue | Financial Times

Shareholders on board.

The deal seems to involve only flying 7 planes until April next year, only paying leases on them from July and paying additional leases only on any extra planes they will actually be using.
That will make it difficult to rotate the planes in use and keep most flying to keep them all in good condition.
Management seem to be very cautious in their plan for back to business. Leaseholders and bondholders with their loans secured in planes, that now in effect will own the company, should press for flying anything that will take in more than the variable costs. That should include cargo and getting more people in the air by finding a way to make the flying experience seem less of a case for easy virus contaminastion than it normally does. That means less press pictures of stuffed planes and more of cleaning, dividers and physical separation. Can't do that if your target is using as few planes as possible.

So the pilots are basically furloughed on zero cash until nextApril? Any idea how things like recency/LPCs are handled given OSM have had their agreements terminated?

As I see it the company just about survived but they’ve thrown most of the employees over to do it?

That might explain this:


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....a8c12d8b5.jpeg

The 7 planes are what the Norwegian government subsidises for providing a minimum route network within Norway.

Management haven't made public what their plans for international or longhaul are yet. It depends on the governments of different countries coming together and reopens borders.
This could take some time if they are all going to follow a Trump'ish attitude of we are doing better than all the others and don't want their contamination to affect our much better numbers and handling of the situation. A stance experts in most countries have said has little effect as long as internal community spreading is widespread. So lack of possiblility for international passenger flying is a political matter rather than an expert led problem.

I thought management did make their plans public, with their investor presentation, showing how they planned to recover from this crisis, and move forward.
It showed long haul not starting before April 2021 for example.
Now the future is secure, let's hope they can make it clear to the crew when they plan on them returning.
For example LGW crew are still employed by OSM receiving JRS payments from the UK government, yet have no idea when Norwegian will re establish the contract with OSM.
Does that mean they are employed until the UK JRS runs out at the end of June.. then what?
I am happy to see Norwegian are going to survive, I just hope now the employees which have stood by the airline have some direction, so they themselves can plan for their future.

I somehow doubt HMG will pay the JRS cash if no J s are R ed

In summary, LGW LH fleet Spain 737 fleet have been thrown under the bus., the LGW ground support has ceased. The questions of "recency" are by way of concessions from the UK CAA, although the caveat is that the "Airline must demonstrate it is safe".. so with NO JOB, you have no airline, OSM do not hold a AOC and thus the pilots are at the good will of NAS to keep them current. We all know that if you have not "operated the aircraft " within the previous 6 months, 12 at a big push, your chances of employment are slim. The idea of keeping your CV in a talent pool suits NAS as they can pick and choose when they want on a PBH way for pilots! The presentation to shareholders, The "Plan" makes it quite clear that NAS do not expect ANY improvement until April 2021 and will use the cash buffer to consolidate the core out of Norway, i.e keep the brand alive. yes, its dead! until 2021, thats why the needed the 500M conversion and PBH

they've already been paid

Well done ‘Kings’ ..

Absolutely in time with events..

Cannot day much more than that.. Yep

The UK JRS scheme will at least, hopefully, give something for at least 3 months, ointment-fly-in you can't work for your employer while on furlough, so I guess if they call up and say "hey move this plane, we're going to pay you" then you must come off furlough and back on again? and now NAS has dumped OSM and the other agencies will it seek a "direct employment contract" with pilots via the talent pool.. even ad hoc.. read as "flexible " in the big plan

In their plan they mentioned only temporary contracts are around 30% less in overheads. To be honest, not really appealing but not like there is going to be much choice in the future.

Don't forget CPH, both long and short haul and ARN that also got run over by that bus.

So if l get this right they have effectively downsized from 154 ish aircraft to 7 aircraft and consolidated all their operations in Scandinavia for the foreseeable future.

Most pilots have been thrown to the wolves and placed in a holding pool until they might be required. Ouch.

Good luck to all.

There were some Scandi - Spanish routes that were nearly always full, plus very profitable onboard sales. Assuming they are as keen to chase the sun as always (especially so after Covid) I wonder if it might be shortsighted of Norwegian to mothball those routes?

1billion given, only 7billion in debt now. What’s in a number?

8000 jobs in the future or 0....not a big difference for you maybe...for us ? A bit more...

What I understand from news they want to operate in the future around 47 aircraft which is 1/3 of current numbers with bases only in Scandinavia and LH routes from Scandinavia which have been previously cancelled.

Fleet will be reduced to 110/120, no one in Spain is fired , just temporary laid-off.

I doubt it. LH routes were already canceled from most of Scandinavia before this crisis because they were not profitable due to the catchment area and touristic interest not being enough to justify LH there. If that was the case then, imagine now with traveling demand out the window.

Leaving national sentiment aside, remember that the new owners are now mostly American and Irish, and they are investors interested in getting their money back and then make some while they're at it. This means that they will open and close routes based in their margins, weather that's north, south, east or west.

This also goes for the crews. Norwegian stopped growing crew bases in Norway a long time ago and didn't even have a LH base in OSL despite their LH operation there. This is so because Scandinavian crews are more expensive than crews in Italy, UK or Spain for example. And I doubt that current owners will look at anything else than profit margin and yield returns in the future, particularly when they already closed Scandinavian bases in CPH and ARN for both SH and LH.

Don't be surprised of a new CEO and executive management replacement when the new board is formed in a few weeks... And expect them to have a strong airline background and speak English with no accent.

What we really need is a “ co op “ airways where employees own it and see the benefits.

All this false rednose bonhommie and your pilot agency just has its contract terminated , end of story , thanks and goodbye.

Actually not even a thanks.

Given how well the board has done I very much doubt they will be replaced.

LH will be cut by 40%
SH routes Scandi - Europe (ie 737 flying to/from Spain) will be cut by 9%
The number of airframes will go down to 120
737 pilots in Spain have not been thrown under the bus. They are still employed by NARes albeit under the government furlough scheme.
The ramp to normal ops will start in March 21 and be complete by summer 2022. That is the base scenario but there is also a favorable scenario with more aggressive dates

Besides effectively writing off 1billion quid of debt they are changing most of the leases from monthly payments to Pay By The Hour. This gives the flexibility to wait for demand to build up. Start flying too soon and you will end up with half empty aircraft which means the losses of the ramp up can be very significant. Therefore getting the timing right is crucial, not just for Norwegian but for every airline. Given the boisterous past a cautious approach I am sure is welcomed by those affected.

All that is in the Business plan given to the bondholders. If you want to comment why not read it instead of speculating wildly?

The CEO predicted only 7 737 in operation until April next year. I think he is too pessimistic.
They will focus on their home area, that is the Nordic countries. Some longhaul operations, but only if it is profitable. He would not say anything specific about routes. He expect a need for more funds when they start to increase production because of increased cost.
They got rid of 10 billion NOK in debt, but need to start borrowing again soon.

They way they set up shop with crew agencies shows how easy it is to get rid of the crew It is positive for Norwegian, but really bad for crew.

They still have the MAX problems, the Dreamliner problems and 100 Airbus on order. And they are still up to the neck in debt. They got through the last days with success, and that is job really well done by Schram and his team.

Just one thing I do not understand is that all Spanish based crew have been told the won't be able access their company email soon, but there has been nothing said officially by Norwegian If they still are employed or made redundant or they will be on the furlough until restarting flying programme ?

I have read it the minute it came out and we're all free to comment and speculate wildly because this is a forum designed for that purpose: to exchange views and opinions about aviation. If you just want facts It might be better to just read the news and official announcements from the company's website.

Also, as of today, Spain's LH 787 crews (based in BCN) are still as alive as SH 737 crews, if you can consider being alive remaining in employment with NAR ES despite the crew agreement between our legal employer and norwegian being currently suspended. This is the same situation for HEL, USA and LGW crews for both LH and SH.

Lastly, I'm not saying that the current board has done a good or a bad job. Simply that the new owners will, with all probability, choose and vote their own board in alignment with their own interest. That's all.

Good or bad job, it really doesn’t help most of the pilots other than the chosen few up north.

The fact we learnt about our jobs disappearing from a workplace post about cessation of contract with pilot agencies - well, I should say I expected better, but I didn’t .

Nailed it.

Well, you failed to mention OSM/NARes no longer has a contract with Norwegian

I think the way norwegian is handling their staff thru this crisis is going to turn around and hunt them back.

The way they have gotten rid of most of their crews (weather thru direct bankruptcy of staffing companies in CPH and ARN or by breaking their contract with NAR and OSM in UK, USA, Spain and Finland) will probably end up in court in several jurisdictions as one thing is to make staff redundant thru legal processes and another quite different is to bankrupt companies that you own in order to not pay severance packages while you still receive funds and continue to operate in other locations.

It's definetely going to get interesting...