Norwegian Air - tell me your experiences

[Jaspercat10]

I have been wanting to book our outward leg at Christmas as it is a great price but I am nervous to commit with all the financial talk..

[sprocket]

They have announced that passenger numbers are up 5%, but at the same time they have increased number of seats by 4% (extra routes). So in reality their seat occupancy has decreased, which is a bad thing. Their income per passenger rose marginally. Their operating costs and debt also increased.

They are about to enter winter months with lower sales and they are in the hands of the lenders extending their debts. They have no options, they are not meeting their targets, loosing money and balancing in existence. Imagine not having the money to pay your mortgage and then begging the bank for extra time to repay it, promising that in a years time you will be better off and be earning more but you had already played that card a year earlier and are now worst than you were then. A year ago their shares were worth around $30 each and now they are $3.50 each.

Norwegian are trying to offer a great product but they made a huge huge error. They went to play in the big boys territory far to early and werent mature enough to do that. They tried a massive risk and that was to offer better services for less money and steel passengers away from the likes of BA and VH. They didnt factor in the loyalty or the stubbornness on the British, ie I am flying VA or BA because it sounds better. You only have to read daily posts on the Dibb to see that people choose BA or VA because they assume its better.

I personally choose whoever is cheaper and in the past would have chosen Norwegian, but they never were suitable.

They are likely to have their debts extended, but in another 6 months they are likely to be going through more debt issues, like they were 6 months ago, but each time getting worst and having less and less to offer against debts. I now believe they are the worst ranked airline in Europe in terms of credit risk. Creditors may just decide its time to pull in the debts while they still have something to salvage.

If they are clever they may just cancel their transatlantic operations and focus on short haul until they build up strength again. There are reasons that Ryanair (yuk!) have stayed away from transatlantic.

Oh to add to these problems, Norwegian have no cash flow to purchase large reserves of fuel for next year, while fuel is cheap, while other airlines do. So if the fuel prices increase next year then Norwegian will have even more to worry about.

Originally Posted by duchy

I'm starting to conclude they may be a lot stronger and savvy than you'd think.

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[duchy]

Time will tell.
I see far more likely airlines to be the next to collapse but if you personally don't have confidence in them then paying more for an inferior product is probably the right thing for you.
For me my last two trips were with them , my next isn't but the next one I book may very likely be. If the worst happened I'd be covered financially and don't travel in school holidays and don't have any strong feeling to travelling indirect so I'd just rebook. If you must fly direct or in school holidays you would naturally be more risk sensitive and not have the luxury perhaps of supporting a product that is better for the consumer in terms of price and service long term.

[kempydee]

We flew with them last Aug from Gatwick to Fort Lauderdale.
Couldn’t fault them. If they started to fly from Manchester to MCO then I would use them again.

We wanted to originally fly from Manchester but the price was a lot cheaper to fly from London. However the drive before and after the flight was a killer and has put us off flying from London - even if the saving was great.

[silver_age]

We flew from Gatwick with Norwegian, driving from Lincolnshire, and the drive either side was a bit of a killer with the wretched M25 being a mess both ways.

On the way out we had a 15:00 departure so we set off at 8:30 to get there with 3 hours spare. On arrival we had to drive to Davenport from Tampa and we were a bit delayed at Tampa when a storm prevented them unloading the baggage from the plane for about an hour. When we finally turned the key in the villa door it was 23:00 EST, so 04:00 UK, and I realised we’d been awake for 21 hours, travelling almost the whole time.