Report
Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA
Oksenoyveien 3, Postboks 115
Phone: +47 67593000p:+47 67593000 LYSAKER, 1336  Norway Ticker: NASNAS


Flight control Norwegian Air Shuttle to drop long-haul trips as carrier fights for survival


Norwegian Air Shuttle has abandoned its attempt to crack the longhaul air market as the low-cost carrier laid out plans to exit bankruptcy protection by all but wiping out existing shareholders, reducing debt, and raising fresh capital.

The low-cost airline will focus on short-haul flights in Europe after concluding that its long-haul flights to the US and Asia were no longer viable as "future demand remains highly uncertain".

About 2,000 employees will lose their jobs as Norwegian's subsidiaries employing long-haul staff in the UK, US, Italy and France face bankruptcy.

In November, Norwegian became the highest-profile casualty of the worst crisis in the aviation industry when it filed for protection from creditors in Ireland after an ill-fated and rapid expansion into long-haul left it with one of the highest debt burdens among all carriers.

"Our short-haul network has always been the backbone of Norwegian and will form the basis of a future resilient business model," said Jacob Schram, chief executive, yesterday. He was speaking as he presented plans to exit examinership in Ireland, a reorganisation process akin to filing for Chapter 11 in the US.

Mr Schram warned that existing shareholders would be left with about 5 per cent of the new company, the second time in under a year that it has wiped out its current investor base. The group's debt load would be cut from about NKr48bn ($6bn) at the end of September to about NKr20bn, leaving impaired creditors with about a quarter of the equity.

The remaining 70 per cent of shares would come from NKr4bn-NKr5bn of capital raising through a rights issue to existing shareholders, a private placement, and a hybrid instrument.

The airline will ask the Norwegian government again if it will support its rescue plan after the centre-right administration in Oslo approved one bailout last spring but refused to put in fresh money in the autumn, tipping the carrier into bankruptcy. The government yesterday appeared more open to the airline's new plans, acknowledging that these were different to what the carrier proposed in November.

Norwegian stressed that its operations would be predominantly in Norway and the Nordics, or between there and the rest of Europe. It previously had bases in the UK and Spain for flights to elsewhere in Europe.

Norwegian said it hoped to exit creditor protection in Ireland before the end of March. "Our focus is to rebuild a strong, profitable Norwegian so that we can safeguard as many jobs as possible," said Mr Schram.


Related Businesses
- - Customer

Copyright © 2024 by CreditRiskMonitor.com (Ticker: CRMZ®). All rights reserved.  You are not permitted to use this report or the information contained herein for any purpose not expressly permitted by CreditRiskMonitor.com, Inc. Except as expressly permitted by CreditRiskMonitor.com, Inc., you are not permitted, in whole or in part, to copy, alter, correct, adapt, translate, enhance, lease, sell, sublicense, assign, distribute, publish, otherwise make available to any third party, or prepare derivative works or improvements of this report or any of the information contained therein. You are not permitted to reverse engineer, disassemble, decompile, decode, or adapt the software, algorithms or other processes used to prepare this report, or otherwise attempt to derive or gain access to the source code of same. You agree not to remove, alter, obscure, combine or otherwise change any disclaimers, trademarks, copyrights, other intellectual property rights, proprietary rights, or other symbols, notices, marks, or serial numbers on or relating to any copy of the report or on marketing or other materials that CreditRiskMonitor.com, Inc. may provide to you. You will not use this report in any manner or for any purpose that infringes, misappropriates, or otherwise violates any right of any party, or that violates any applicable law.  
The FRISK® scores, agency ratings, credit limit recommendations and other scores, analysis and commentary are opinions of CreditRiskMonitor.com, Inc. and/or its suppliers, not statements of fact, and should be one of several factors in making credit decisions.  Any reliance you place on the information in this report is strictly at your own risk. Except as expressly provided by CreditRiskMonitor.com, Inc., no warranties or representations of any type, including without limitation of results to be obtained, merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose, are made concerning any part of CreditRiskMonitor.com, Inc.’s service, including without limitation the FRISK® scores.  The information published above has been obtained from sources CreditRiskMonitor considers to be reliable.  CreditRiskMonitor.com, Inc. and its third-party suppliers do not guarantee or validate the accuracy and completeness of the information provided in this report, the underlying information input to create the FRISK® scores, and specifically do not assume responsibility for not reporting any information omitted or withheld.  By using this website, you accept the Terms of Use Agreement
Contact Us: 845.230.3000
Fundamental financial data concerning public companies may be provided by Refinitiv (click for restrictions)
Thursday, March 28, 2024