I really like this post, however I think it extends far further than IAG. I think this should be dictionary definition of most, if not all airline CEO's!

Norwegian has an exclusively long haul fleet of 787s therefore the issue is of much more significance to BA which has 767, 747 and A380s.

You can speculate wildly if you wish but the available facts are that IAG has kept all airlines that it has bought running as separate entities (with the one and only exception of BMI which got merged into BA). Not only it has kept them separate but it has grown their operations wherever possible.

The model is well understood and used by many business, for example VW. It runs VW, Audi, Skoda, Lamborghini and Bentley. Why run separate brands? because it captures different consumers with different preferences while still taking advantage of economies of scale. If IAG buys Norwegian and shuts it down the only thing that will happen is that a new player will fill the void

calypso : Northeast, Cambrian, BCAL,Danair................................................. !!!! History rufutes your claim.


PS talk to any former employee of DanAir and he will tell you what "cherrypicking" in a business sense means in practice.

The history of IAG doesn't. I understand the process of asset stripping however that has not been the strategy of IAG so far which, in my opinion, is far more relevant to the future of a IAG take over of Norwegian than what happened to Dan air over two decades ago.

Who got monarchs lgw slots when they went pop? And who mentioned takeover? IAGs vulture fund is huge. My bet is they will wait till the recession and go for the assets in the subsequent resulting firesale. Liquidity will be king.

Interesting times.
I have to say I am getting slowly more optimistic on behalf of my Norwegian colleagues.
Why?
Well , it looks like loan default is being avoided.
Oil down like an auger.
May I add tough times": Let us use a low cost this year, Eh! Not BA!"

A few observations:
Norwegian is per date Nr 8 in Pax nr, that is no small fry. A certain critical mass has been achieved.
RR has settled with NOR on a substantial deal for the engine fiasko.
I see some of You Britts are going on about some historic stuff :Dan Air, and no airline being successful with LOCO Long Haul.
First Danair had 36 aircraft
Norwegian 163,,,,,
And yes, Big Airlines made damd well sure that Loco Long Haul was exterminated, BUT that was in the days before free and fair competition!
Utterly irrelevant!

As this thread will be up in December 26 2019 , I bet Norwegian alive and well in a year.
Some of the analysis here is just wishfull thinking, me thinks!

Tell that to the poor folk who are traveling to Dubai on an Air Belgium A340 every day this Winter.

Granted, passengers were given a treat when they brought in Qatar A330s to cover the AOG 787s, a rare chance for BA passengers to experience a good product for a change.

I am quite optimistic about our future. Had not the new CFO come in and straightened our direction I would have been more worried, he is doing a fantastic job and it is about time for a cost-saving program and organizing the AOC-structure for the future. I believe this will be a critical year ahead but there are a lot of competent people working in the office. Regarding the TC's I am far better of working for Norwegian in Scandinavia than working for e.g BA in the UK. Our package is so much better with regards to roster, pension, vacation, insurances and so on.

A320Ecam
 

I am with you, I have had hundreds of flights with Norwegian that has been good , considering what I pay.
With regards to Cruise are we talking Norwegian Cruise Line, in that case I think You just expanded the brand a tad , Eh?
No connection in ownership, of the Ship, I think . Correct me if wrong.

IceJock
Indeed
I am glad to hear this.
Massive potential for savings AND extra revenue. 43 øre per seatmile is not sustainable as the Irish lot is down to 27 øre.
And that gang of Cabin Captains need to sell me at least a coffee at 06.30 departure for Oslo, either that or quit mixing private Late in the galley and putting 17 crewbags in MY overhead,,,,,

Better news:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/grantma...cial-scrutiny/

If you are interested in the issues surrounding Norwegian and want to pass comment on them why not inform yourself on the subject first? Willie Walsh, CEO of IAG, has made two offers for Norwegian in 2018 and is on the record from a couple of weeks ago saying he is still interested in buying Norwegian right away if the price can be agreed. The price he offered by the way is over twice the current market Cap of Norwegian.

As anyone can imagine opening new routes is an expensive business because even good routes are very rearly profitable from day 1, it takes time for a new route to become stablished (a minimum of a year?). Growing an airline is also expensive because it implies a whole raft of one off costs, like training new crew for example. In addition the issues with the RR 787 engines have brought costs that should not be ongoing. All those one off costs are the reason why Norwegian is no profitable, or bearly so, right now. In the other hand once you have made those investments running costs should be much lower and as new routes become consolidated the airline should be quite profitable. For these reasons judging Norwegain´s business model with a static picture of 2018 misses the point.

A320ECAM
That's a brave shout how long have you been in the business?

Air Europe, Dan Air, Air Berlin, Pan Am, TWA, I could go on forever with airlines that have been too big to fail or too well established to disappear.

Flash meet Pan.


WWW

Air Europe, Dan Air weren't even close to being half as big as Norwegian is today. Air Berlin had a 100% leased fleet, while Norwegian's fleet is 70% owned. Pan Am got hit by deregulations and TWA got bought up. Not to name the fact that Air Berlin, Pan Am and TWA had completely different business models.
Great comparison mate.. :}