Latest news 51 pilots loose their job in Spain and102 pilots unpaid leave untill april 2020. 😬

Yawn. When you have 18 aircraft grounded (plus however many should’ve been delivered by now) and 50 engines that need replacing/inspecting, you need fewer crew.

Change the record.

he sounds like he is DY management.

Post anything negative about Norwegian’s financial well-being and Vokes55 will be first to come out with his fingers between his ears and shouting that all is well. Just like Comical Ali standing in front of the American tanks rolling into Baghdad proclaiming the infidels were being driven out. Makes you wonder who he’s trying to convince.

What’s your problem?? I’ll assume you’ve never been through a redundancy. It’s only a matter of time in this industry. If you have, then I hope folk were a little more empathetic with you than you are being here. Being kind costs nothing.

I think you’ve misunderstood my point. I’m tired of hearing every single negative rumour about Norwegian as some sort of indication that they’re about to collapse, seemingly to some fanfare from the ignorant souls on the internet who have little to no care about the welfare of those who will lose their jobs.

Ryanair are telling pilots to take 12 months unpaid leave. I am taking unpaid leave in my organisation, voluntarily. Cabin crew are hired on seasonal contracts in a lot of airlines. Here’s some news to some people: The winter is quieter than the summer. And if you have a number of aircraft grounded on top of that, of course companies are going to ask people to take unpaid leave. From what I understand, nobody in Norwegian is being forced into anything, they’ve just been given a number of options which may or may not appeal to them. What happens if they don’t get the required number of volunteers, I don’t know.

So repeat, change the record.

Wake up. Respecting your employees does not mean using them when you need them and drop them when you don’t. Honestly I can’t believe this

The fact that you might work for scumbags doesn’t make it right... I’ve lost 8 years career progression due to redundancy, that is quite a bitch I can tell you..

Having said this; if you apply for Norwegian as a contractor, you should know in advance that you are amongst the first ones out when the **** truly hits the fan. Nevertheless, good luck with seeking new opportunities (again).

So if you’re such a snowflake that you can’t stand to hear people raise quite reasonable questions about Norwegian’s questionable finances might I suggest a Professional Pilots Rumour Network is not really the place for you.

So what do you suggest Norwegian do? Keep everyone employed on full time contracts when they have 25+ aircraft fewer than they planned? That makes great business sense.

Who said where I work? I’ve taken unpaid leave because I wanted to as a lifestyle choice that was offered to me, because despite what the willy-wavers in the BA thread might tell you, there’s more to life than working 900 hours per year. I certainly wouldn’t call my employers scumbags either, but seeing as this thread is awash with personal attacks from people about people they not only don’t know, but have no idea who they work for or any other life circumstances, I’ll join in and suggest maybe your 8 years lost career progression was due to your own life choices, and not anybody else’s fault.



Let’s face it, you’re just another BA pilot who’s been brainwashed by his management into believing that Norwegian are the reason your T&Cs have become so dire. I’m surprised you found time in between your 6 long haul trips per month to post on here, let alone on a topic that doesn’t concern you at all.

But in answer to your question, tell me how the ‘news’ at the top of the thread is linked to the company’s “questionable finances”, with evidence.

Vokes55 quite frankly you’re embarrassing yourself. You’re a complete caricature and becoming beyond parody. You do realise the irony in calling out people as willy-wavers making assumptions about people they don’t know and in the same breath going on the attack about BA’s “six trips a month”. None of which applies to me.

For the record we’ve seen an emergency rights issue and putting up their Gatwick slots as collateral in a push to delay repayment of bonds. Add to that the retrenchment of the airline throughout Europe and cancellation of routes and credit card companies withholding payments added to the current news contained within this thread. None of which paint a rosy picture of the financial situation at the airline. The total liabilities they are sitting on (over £6Billion) are eye watering. Now you can point out these are moves to stabilise the airline’s economic situation but, if you do, you are conceding that the economic situation was bad to begin with and the airline has been (up to this point) grossly mismanaged. Which illustrates the point that many of us commentating on Norwegian’s financials have been making all along. You can’t have it both ways I’m afraid Vokes, if these measures are being taken it’s because the business model was completely bogus.

I know you and others in the past (before the extension of the bond deadline and the rights issue) have been glossing over the debt situation by saying the debt was needed for expansion. Now the company are realising that trying to grab market share and grow into profitability is absolutely impossible at the fares that Norwegian charge with their level of overheads. The business model has been flawed the entire way along and if they couldn’t do it at a time when the aviation industry as a whole has been reporting record profitability then God knows how bad it’s going to be in a world economic recession.

Norwegian are not in a good place Vokes. Believe it or not I don’t take any great pleasure in that largely because - as we’ve seen with recent events at Thomas Cook - it isn’t pleasant when our colleagues in other airlines are put out of work. I’ve been through it myself. It’s not pleasant when people speculate in a negative fashion and you might not like what you hear (for whatever reason) but acting like a spoilt child, sticking your fingers in your ears and screaming and shouting all you like doesn’t change that reality and should not stifle the debate about a company in genuine difficulty and Norwegian are definitely in this category.

From what I heard they are discussing options with unions, and will almost certainly be offered transfers. As happened with the Canaries and EDI base. Whether Madrid crew want to transfer to other bases is up to them.

From detailed analysis I have carried out to advise investors in DY, I would say that Plastic787’s analysis is absolutely spot on.

Last year the airline made NOK 1.3bn during Q3, which was swallowed up halfway through Q4. Since then they have issued more shares, sold off assets and effectively defaulted on a huge loan, putting up their LGW slots as security in return for an extension. I am willing to bet the bondholders had no choice.

Despite their proclamations about turning the company around and morphing dramatically from growth to profitability, Q1 and Q2 seat costs are around 20% higher than 2018.

Summer 2019 passengers and revenues have been broadly flat in July and August and so unless there has been a dramatic reduction in the seat cost trend it is likely Q3 will not make anywhere near the profit of Q3 2018.

If this comes to pass (we should find out next week), it will be a very tough Winter. I hope I am wrong but I don’t see a rosy future for this airline, just based on figures and trends I have analysed recently,

I will definitely hold you up on this statement when the Q3 Numbers are presented late october.

Are you suggesting than my assumptions (which are based on fact) are wildly out? Perhaps you would be kind enough to show me where I have gone wrong.....

I understand the nature of this game is fairly seasonal, but the constant requests for people to take unpaid leave etc still leave a bad taste.
We produce the profits in the summer and work hard and expect a bit of down time in the winter, but unfortunately my mortgage isn’t seasonal.

well i I am a bit stumped here, do I ask for 50-50, phone a friend, I know let's ask the audience.

Flightglobal has produced a well written, and very professional article about the situation in Norwegian. A comitted observer, no doubt.
https://www.flightglobal.com/news/ar...bility-461279/

JonEMA - I also liked Andrew Lobbenberg’s words:

”"The business was run around the growth agenda – they had too many aeroplanes," says Andrew Lobbenberg, head of European transport equity research at HSBC. "The tail was wagging the dog because the network was being designed to absorb the fleet plan rather than the fleet plan was being designed to meet the network."

It seems absolutely incredible that so many aircraft were ordered in one go. Not just the incumbent 737s but 787s and A321s. I didn’t know until today that there are yet more on order - 60 or so A320s.

Saying “we are switching from growth to profitability” is completely meaningless when you still have 200 aircraft on the way and little idea where to deploy them profitably.

What on earth were these people thinking?

if this airline survives with its dysfunctional fleet and business model, it will be the biggest miracle in the history of aviation.

Ok - so that still leaves over 100 aircraft to find profitable homes for. Not saying it is impossible, but it will require an eye-watering amount of cash the airline doesn’t have.

Ask Willie how he is getting on with that with Level? In fact just read the accounts.

What exactly have Norwegian proven? That customers are willing to pay for a product that is being sold below cost? I think if anyone didn’t think that was the case, they’d be certifiable.. The proof in whether the model works or not is not sentiment of passengers but cold hard financials. Passengers love the A380, if that was the metric there’d be thousands of the things flying around the skies. Theres not and that’s because of the financials of the aircraft. Norwegian’s financial statements do not make pretty reading and are the ultimate litmus test of the Long Haul Low Fares model. Directmisbi what is it you believe that Norwegian are doing or what advantage do you believe they have that makes their prospects fundamentally any different to that of Laker etc? With Norwegian first of all it was expand to profitability now it’s shrink to profitability. Are there not major red flags there in that last sentence that the model is all wrong?