Norwegian Air has, in a sense, gone back to its future by emerging from bankruptcy as a smaller company focused on routes in Scandinavia and its neighbors. Its career as a world-wide long-distance disrupter is behind it.
Hammered before the pandemic by huge debts and aircraft order delays, the airline collapsed into bankruptcy when the pandemic shut down most airline operations and kept its leisure-travel audience at home.
Jacob Schram, who took over as CEO as the airline began to falter, told a press conference that “It’s a relief to be a normal airline again.” The airline has sufficient funds to keep going as it rebuilds its business, he said. “This war chest can keep us afloat long after summer next year…we are strong enough to cope with a total reopening of society.”
That doesn’t mean the airline is profitable yet; it lost the equivalent of $140 million in the first quarter of this year. That compares to nearly $400 million for the same period last year. The revived airline has 51 planes, all 737s; at its peak it operated 156 planes, including dozens of 787s. Employment is down to 3,300 from a peak of over 10,000.
