Bjorn Kjus - founder of Norwegian - starts a new airline - Norse Atlantic Airways
 

This is a quote from the DT; I'm not allowed yet to post links.

" Less than two years after standing down as chief executive of the struggling budget airline, he is setting up a new carrier called Norse Atlantic Airways.Mr Kjos will own a 15pc stake, while former Norwegian chairman Bjorn Kise will own 12pc.

Shipping entrepreneur Bjorn Tore Larsen – whose firm OSM Aviation provided flight crews for Norwegian Air before it collapsed last year – will be chief executive and hold a 53pc stake.

Despite the near total collapse in air travel caused by the pandemic, Norse Atlantic aims to start flying before the end of the year with nine leased Boeing 787 Dreamliners – the same plane used on transatlantic flights by Norwegian Air.

The new airline plans to fly from European hubs including London, Paris and Oslo to US cities including New York, Los Angeles and Miami, while services to Asia could follow suit. It has raised $24m (£17m) from investors and plans to list in Oslo."

Hmm. Will Norse’ U.K. operation consist of anything more than a small handful of admin staff in U.K. and will they employ any crew...or follow tradition by using an overseas recruitment agency? Will ownership and control be transparent or exercised via a web of companies under various national jurisdictions? Just asking.

Recruitment for U.K based Cabin Crew started a few weeks ago, using the same agency as Norwegian, OSM Aviation.

Entrepreneurs create the jobs. We, professional , commercial pilots should be loyal to our licence issuers and not to whatever is painted on the side of a commercial aircraft. We are all in this fierce commercial market. I hope all previous Norwegian 787 drivers jump in and get passed V1 again.

I am reminded of a former period when jobs were hard to find. One arrogant lot asked a colleague of mine "Just how long do you intend staying with us ?". He replied ;" Until a better job comes up". They took him on. Liked his honesty and commercial awareness. Good luck to all.

Norwegian, a majority U.K. owned business: Really? “Registered”,yes but I understood they had token (20 or so)U.K. staff with meaningful control exercised from overseas. Surely not an optimum model? Wet leasing a separate can of worms. I agree that’s not the route being used here.

Not an uncommon thing though. EasyJet Europe is completely controlled from the UK offices, they have some token staff sometimes flying into a token office in Vienna, but ownership and control is outside the EU. Which is allowable under the TCA. Although Norway has its own trade deal with the UK, so one might have to look it up there.

That’s a fair point Denti, but not quite the same. Without idealising Easy, they had to gain a European AOC because of Brexit. In Norwegian’s case the allocation of parts of the business to various jurisdictions seemed very deliberate -to allow them, for instance, to use an East Asian employment agency to hire crews.

Stay away from anything related to Kjos or anyone from Norwegian management...bunch of total incompetents.
they destroyed the job of thousands people, they left them with no information and no support.
Norway should only produce salmon, not running business such as airlines

Can I suggest the former Wizz base Captain avalable for the CFO position ? Don’t waste such a talent ....

fulminn

Let me remind you that before destroying those jobs, he actually created it in a first place. Why don't you do the same and then exercise your judgement afterwards?

Will Kjos even pass the fit and proper person test? Well I think we know the answer to that one but he shouldn’t..

Anyone can take billions of other people’s money and turn it into nothing - not much talent required. I suppose if you look at the bright side, some of that money went to crew (for a while).

Is there anything radically different about this new incarnation? Will it be decently profitable in much more adverse trading conditions than the first time round? I have yet to see a cogent argument supporting the idea of “low cost” long haul...

I just read this from BALPA,the LGW operation will be flying under a UK AOC, alleviating possible license issues.

They have confirmed that the recruitment of pilots will be conducted by OSM using the applications from their website.

NAA have recruited a HR manager for the UK and starts with NAA on the 1st May. BALPA already enjoys a good professional working relationship with OSM and NAA have committed to opening social dialogue in May. We can fully expect that both BALPA and Unite (cabin crew union) will enter union recognition with NAA shortly after.

Low cost long haul is as yet unproven. But on the plus side there are a number of things in their favor. A lot of the costs should be lower including aircraft acquisition, fuel and crew and there should be slots available together with plenty of pent up demand. These guys will hopefully have learned something from their past mistakes. Timing of a ramp up in flying will be tricky. But I think a startup without debt and building on past experience has as good a chance now as it will ever have.

The largest travel corridor that will emerge later this year will be between the UK and the US. Thats what they're hoping to capitalise on.

lederhosen

I think it has been proven to be a complete and resounding failure. Norwegian operated during a time of historically low fuel costs, cheap aircraft and access to markets at a time when people were travelling in record numbers. Even after tapping the markets for more and more capital and restructuring several times and clearing the decks of debt it still went boom.

The industry has been consolidating and will continue to do so. Its about leveraging off codeshares and JVs, exercising your purchasing power, filling the belly with cargo and the cabin with premium passengers. Norwegian/Norse have none of that.

I have not followed Norwegian's demise with attention, but wasn't the failure of the long haul sector due to Rotating Rubbish's engine issues?

Good points MCDU, let’s see what happens. How cheap the aircraft were when you factor in the sub charter costs covering the 787 problems is though as yet unclear.

RR powered 787s, 737 Maxs... and Covid. Not exactly 'normal' odds were stacked against them...

I would personally stay away for ever from any kind of aviation business. I've been in Norwegian just in time to touch with hands that they are simply not qualified to do this business...stay away from Bjorn Kjus if you want to sleep in relax thinking at your job stability.