was once told by a wise old chap there are two types of people in business.
1 - Those who can build a large business.
2 - Those who can run a large business.

very rare to find people who could do both, and also very rare to find people who will admit they can’t do the latter after being successful at the former.

https://www.newsinenglish.no/2020/05...d-for-takeoff/ Interestingly still selling LH tickets? If the credit card companies get nervous that could be curtains for the cashflow.

Meanwhile, looks like the crew are about to be well and truly shafted. They’ve already been contacted about arrangements for return of ID, uniform etc. So much for ‘positive’ news.

In a extremely formal manner via fb...

Crews and staff, going from being over joyed the company is going to survive, then squarely hit in the face, that they have to hand uniform and ID back.
Which shows to many, the job they love is gone, by submitting a CV, they may get a call back when things pick up in their base or on Long Haul.
I wish everyone in Norwegian all the best for the future, and I do hope it returns on all fronts, once again.

Thank you. That’s exactly what’s happened. It was so good to hear the news this morning, which offered a chink of light after expecting and preparing for the worst for weeks, only to be totally kicked in the teeth this evening.

Unless, this is one of those ruthless rationalisation exercises that seems to be the current trend? An opportunity to get rid of those that need to be off loaded for whatever reason and reemploy a chosen few. I’ve seen this happen in various business sectors.

Did Norwegian ever open up a 787 pilot base in FLL?

The notification is not new to many crews/employees. Employees in Denmark, Sweden, and Finland were told to hand everything in starting two weeks ago. Access to company email and other accounts was terminated yesterday for those employees.

Yes. It closed last year. Most pilots were let go, except those who had completed the EASA license conversion and had the right to live and work in Europe. There were only five or six who survived the base closing.

I don’t understand why anybody would be overjoyed unless they were Oslo based . The restructure plan didn’t include much else, even if it survived we knew there was a year plus wait for any crumbs

Totally agree. It just seems disingenuous to send happy, clappy, ‘We’re all in this together Red Nose Warriors’ messages four days ago and then, when the ink is barely dry on the deal, start to immediately cut ties.

About 1200 jobs at Gatwick will go with NAS, the word from OSM is that NLH will do direct hires as/when needed, seasonal contracts and no idea when things will start up, but unlikely before end 2021. Not sure about recovering any type rating/ training costs under the previous 2 or 3 year agreements. Red Nose warriors.. hmmm

Reported in press 20th April.
1571 Pilots and 3134 Cabin Crew without jobs! hardly a cause for their Mexican Wave, but there again, the NAS model has always been about spin, and to be fair, they are good at it, after all, who else could burn 1 Billion of other peoples money and get away with it and be declared heroes for "saving the company" . On the other hand, for 6/7 years many enjoyed working with the company and that is demonstrated by the loyalty to the "brand" even in these hard times. I guess if one was philosophical you might argue that but for COVID19 they may just have pulled it off.. Perhaps more concerning is the thought that temporary wage reductions in the industry "survivors " will become permanent as management use the pilot surplus as a bargaining chip, disregarding the cost of training replacements if one throws in the towel or the effect on moral. Although moral is usually high amongst survivors in wars !
With Virgin Pulling out of Gatwick, BA not planning to restart there and Easyjet reductions it could mean the slots are near worthless and it will be investing to see what the "independent" valuations by 2 experts are as required for the NAS07 bond criteria on 18th May.

The second part of that might be worth a fact check. Gatwick is still very much part (as of 19:27 on 5th May 2020) of the flight ops plan for BA. With the news coming out of Norwegian and Virgin they’re going to have a virtual monopoly on Gatwick LH, difficult to see them giving that up.

That would be a shame , if only BAs stuffy old offering was left .

Maybe they will continue, but management "rumour" is often a way to let the staff get used to the idea in principle: In a process called “Preparing for a Different Future”. British Airways wants rid of 12,000 of its 42,000 staff. The figures set out by the airline in letters to trade unions reveal that BA envisages 22 per cent fewer flights when aviation finally gets back in the skies.

"Many services to and from its main base, Heathrow airport, will be culled. This, though, creates a problem. BA’s most valuable asset is its slot portfolio at Heathrow. In normal times, a strict “use them or lose them” rule applies for the precious permissions to take off and land at Europe’s busiest hub. Moving most or all flights from Gatwick around to Heathrow provides a solution."

I for one would like BA to continue at LGW, it's been a cornerstone for years, and the airport are still pressing ahead with the planning to convert the emergency runway for full time ops..

Or a way of coercing/scaring staff into signing a detrimental new contract. “Sign this zero hours contract or we’ll close your base”. Trust me, BA Flight Ops still have Gatwick as part of the plan at the current time, having said that obviously it is subject to change depending on circumstances.

Norwegian might be in danger of missing a big trick here. Virgin pulling out of Gatwick, NAS still holding slots there. Several European countries (that Norwegian already fly to) are looking to open up tourism again. Wizzair already increasing flights from Luton in anticipation.

Don’t be caught sleeping Norwegian - it might be the break you need!

They’ll have a job with no NUK pilots or crew anymore . They’ll be no one qualified or employed to fly the 78s at short notice

Exactly. Meanwhile NAS are still
paying the leases and maintainance on idle aircraft which could be utilised - not forgetting the 737s as well. The business opportunity is going to go walking out the door when flying starts picking up in the next three months.

NAS haven't got the resources to run an operation at Gatwick anymore, no company will give them credit facilities given their track record. The pilot unions in Spain have started a legal case against the company arguing that even though they had contracts with NAR Spain (OSM) due to the shareholdings and exclusive use of the crews, the crews effectively worked for NAS and thus they had employee rights. If the Spanish courts except the challenge it could tie NAS up for months while an agreement / settlement is made and blow any offers of funding out of the water, potentially employees would become creditors of the parent company and the courts may take charges over any assets, Given the value of these assets are fundamental to the NAS07 bond agreement it could get very messy. Guess they will want their ducks in a line before 18th May

Besides Spanish courts, there will be more challenges coming soon if they keep playing the bankruptcy card around the continent.

One thing is to downsize aligned with laws and regulations and in agreement with your workforce, and another thing is to dump people as if they didn't work for you at all.

It's simply not fashionable nowadays and judges will eat them alive with very little remorse.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....da9b042c9d.png
Is he going for a job in the Middle East?

Does the CEO have any Warriors remaining to offend?

Red noses will not attract too many in times of a life threatening cold.
A bit much stick and litle reconcillation and presentation of possible plans for the future from Norwegian management.
Was it necessary to demand hand in of uniforms and access cards and cut them off from the systems altogether. Could they not just have quietly in the background changed the access for now.
You don't stop your kind of former enployees from suing you by being tough. Better with presenting possibilitie of future engagements for they who wait and see. Would you run to the lawyer in the hope of a relatively small sum at the cost of an acrimonuos departure, in a time when no one is hiring anybody in your field of work, if there was even a glimmer of hope with the present one.

I think under the European Aviation and Airport Security Regulations access cards have to be returned to the company/issuing authority immediately as a condition of cessation of contract. Failure to do so might involve sanctions on those that are still in employ.

This is not about a useless ID card or an even more useless used uniform. This is about norwegian playing "we don´t know you" to staff in several countries who have worked long and hard to support the airline and who have redundancy rights and are due severance payments in accordance to their labor regulations.

Any airline worth mentioning is currently negotiating massive layoffs involving unions and different possibilities like early retirement, part time options, spread of damage, seniority based redundancies, etc... This is not about not accepting that cost reduction is a must in the current crisis. It´s about being a responsible social player and to care for those who support you.

Norwegian instead is just playing the lottery bankruptcy card like they´re not liable for anyone and looking to the other side. Asking their own crew to reapply with their CV´s as if they didn´t know who they were. Cutting them off from their IT network without having firing them because they can´t pay for their redundancies. Suggesting the return of their property but still getting states to cover the schemes for furloughed staff.

The result is nothing but a massive breakdown of their whole workforce. Morale is completely out the window. The "chosen" ones went from rednose warriors to brownnose warriors overnight in hopes that they won´t be next. Bases confronted to one another as seniority has not been considered at all. And a stream of court challenges coming their way.

A sad story if I ever saw one...

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....bba075435.jpeg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....50887fe78.jpeg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....e8451177b.jpeg

Trying to be excessively reasonable is not going to gain SELPA anything, the only realistic course of action would be to have a court freeze the assets of the company whist a solution is found, if indeed it can be found. This arrangement of crews supplied via service companies is wholly designed to allow for flexibility in numbers and abrogate the client " NAS" of any financial responsibility.

You can't get blood from a stone and NAS is effectively on life support, dependent of state aid forthcoming after the meetings on the 18th May.

I find it hard to digest phrases such as "beloved company" given the way the NAS management have treated staff globally and people can sense the bitterness and anger of this betrayal.

The question remains, "would you want to work for these guys/" , once bitten, twice shy comes to mind!

Old farts like myself and my colleagues are not surprised, we have seen this duplicity a multitude of times, but for the young loyalists, whom were only last week pushing to "support the cause", these turn of events must be a heavy blow.

By the way, the uniforms form part of the assets, even the fuel in the tanks has been capitalised!

KG,
Absolutely right - anybody who didn’t see this coming is naive or inexperienced .

Surely , the use of agencies, to circumvent social responsibility , was first used at Ryanair.

And that is where the vast majority of the pilots used to come from - you reap what you sow.

CEO message dated 10th of May:


“Dear union representatives,
With reference to your letter dated 6th May.
Many people have reached out to me the last few weeks since Norwegian announced on April 20th that we had notified both OSM Aviation and Rishworth subsidiaries that we have cancelled the crew provision agreements with them due to the extraordinary situation (force majeure). This means that we notified these companies that we currently do not require crew in the countries in which they operate, namely Spain, Finland, Sweden, US & UK.
I have previously held two global meetings with HSE & union representatives this year, a physical
th th meeting at Gardermoen 20 February and a Teams Call on March 27
. I will continue to have an open and transparent dialogue and hold regular meetings with the HSE and Union representatives in
Norwegian to give business updates.
For those unions representing employees affected by the cancellation of the crew provision agreements, then your employer will continue the union dialogue moving forward.”

Lovely reply from the CEO.
Basically saying your no longer anything to do with me goodbye.
speak to the agency that has zero authority to make any decision on your future flying Norwegian planes.

Rednose warrior my arse.

What did you expect? If he actually did care he would have offered direct employment in the first place.

Current CEO has been with Norwegian for six months.

Not defending past Norwegian hiring practices, but putting all the blame on this individual is ignorant of the facts.

I also find it a bit suspect that the most vociferous contributors on this thread seem to hail from Dublin.

I'm sure it's just coincidence that the home base of one of Norwegian's bitterest rivals happens to be one and the same...

And, I'm sure SEPLA, like any union, would be thrilled to have their proprietary, confidential correspondence displayed in full.

So much professionalism on display it's hard to know where to start! :D

If you can't find anything factually wrong with the message, attack the background of the messenger, very Trump'ish.
There do live quite a few norwegians in Dublin.
Norwegian was for a time quite aggresive in recruiting also in Dublin for the base there.
Many of Norwegian's forced new owners are based in Dublin so expect to here a lot more maybe not so welcome comments from there.

And for being new in the job. The past Norwegian CEO did not cut most of their employees loose overnight, even when times where tough. Schram is not helping himself either by bragging of his airline experience polishing planes in the Fornebu hangar as a youth, or telling everybody how he tries to be home every day by 17:30 Even tough that last part might sit well in Norway's work/life balance society, the airline industry is a competitive international business.
I can fully understand why Norwegian want to keep on the quiet their handling of simply dumping their international employees and its possible financial repercussions. But if a company don't respond to correspondence in a normal civilised and businesslike way people find other methods.

The SEPLA letter is on an open public page on a well known professional networking site, therefore accessible to 575 million members. Wasn’t hard to find.

Like the old saying: "nothing says thank you like money"...

This is not about communication or being or not a cheerful leader. This is about the law, and in particular the rules and regulations governing weather you can be employed or not by a fully owned subsidiary (not an agency or broker) which has no assets, means of production, nor any goals other than to provide crews to an exclusive parent company so that they can circumnavigate social responsibility and the severance payments associated with dismissal, including bankruptcy proceedings of such subsidiary when they are still alive and operating as it is the case. This is a no brainer and it will come back to bite them right after sentencing.

Whether the newly appointed CEO is here to stay or not will soon be decided by the new board as soon as the new owners (mostly Irish and American lessors and bondholders) take possession of their shares next Monday. My guess is that they will be appointing a new CEO with ample airline experience (and with an American or Irish background) who will be able to resuscitate this corpse and put it back in the air as soon as possible, and not next summer. And for that you don´t only need cash, but also crews and some degree of social peace among your workforce. And not having everyone confronted and court cases piling up against you.

The Spanish courts tend to be employee friendly. It will be interesting to see how this plays out should Norwegian and/or their agents get taken to the labour tribunal in Spain.

:D:D:D:D

Maybe having been a former CEO of McDonalds made Schram think he could just remove things off the menu he found not to his taste?

Is that your guess or your wish?