News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Norwegian Air to cancel 85% of flights and temporarily lay off 90% of staff. Parent comment

Re:Norwegian Air to cancel 85% of flights and temporarily la... by marvin on Monday March 16, 2020 @02:21PM (#22595648)
While I agree with your point in general, Norwegian is done. They've got a heavy debt burden that's due soon. They will either go bankrupt and be restructured, or have to do a wipeout-level stock offering (unlikely in the current risk climate).
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Norwegian Air to cancel 85% of flights and temporarily la... by axlee on Monday March 16, 2020 @02:31PM (#22595766)
Can't Norway bail them out? It's not like they lack the capital, and they're the country largest airline.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Norwegian Air to cancel 85% of flights and temporarily la... by marvin on Monday March 16, 2020 @03:12PM (#22596334)
Let's see what happens. But Norwegian privately owned, so if the state does bail them out, I sure as hell hope they wipe out the common shareholders in the process. This culture of moral hazard, "privatize the profit, nationalize the risk", is pure bullshit.

I probably agree with providing liquidity in the form of some sort of short-term loan in order to live through a completely unexpected macro crisis, if it's done on equal terms to everyone. But Norwegian won't survive that either, I think.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Norwegian Air to cancel 85% of flights and temporarily la... by ShinTakuya on Monday March 16, 2020 @08:01PM (#22599744)
Yes, this! I wouldn't be happy as a shareholder if this happened but if the last resort for a company is a government bailout the government should own the company and benefit from the recovery.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Norwegian Air to cancel 85% of flights and temporarily la... by ucarion on Monday March 16, 2020 @02:54PM (#22596114)
This is not to contradict what you're saying, but it should be clarified that Norway's flag carrier is Scandinavian Airlines, not Norwegian Air:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandinavian_Airlines

Again: I'm aware that you haven't said anything to the contrary. But it's useful context.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Norwegian Air to cancel 85% of flights and temporarily la... by michaeljohansen on Monday March 16, 2020 @03:06PM (#22596250)
Well. We Norwegians joke that SAS stands for "svensk alt sammen" (Swedish all together). Some of us consider Norwegian Air Shuttle to be more of a Norwegian airline.

And yes, a bailout is likely. The govt will likely help keep Norwegian Air's planes flying during the Coronavirus period. Additional help is possible.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Norwegian Air to cancel 85% of flights and temporarily la... by hnarn on Monday March 16, 2020 @03:14PM (#22596373)
Looking only at state ownership, the Swedish and Danish governments own about the same share of SAS (~14%) and 1/3rd of the company stock is privately owned.[1]

[1]: https://www.sasgroup.net/annualreports/2018/assets/pdf/eng/S...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Norwegian Air to cancel 85% of flights and temporarily la... by Jhsto on Monday March 16, 2020 @04:23PM (#22597218)
Meanwhile, the Finnish government owns 55.8% of Finnair.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Norwegian Air to cancel 85% of flights and temporarily la... by gerikson on Tuesday March 17, 2020 @11:14AM (#22605625)
SAS is furloughing 10K employees.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Norwegian Air to cancel 85% of flights and temporarily la... by reaperducer on Monday March 16, 2020 @04:26PM (#22597258)
Can't Norway bail them out? It's not like they lack the capital, and they're the country largest airline.

Italy just did so for Alitalia.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-alitalia-idUSKBN212...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Norwegian Air to cancel 85% of flights and temporarily la... by brianbreslin on Monday March 16, 2020 @02:36PM (#22595842)
I think they are norwegian in name only. Their headquarters is london.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Norwegian Air to cancel 85% of flights and temporarily la... by nkristoffersen on Tuesday March 17, 2020 @07:04AM (#22603693)
Wikipedia states the headquarters is in Fornebu.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Air_Shuttle

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Norwegian Air to cancel 85% of flights and temporarily la... by marcosdumay on Monday March 16, 2020 @10:15PM (#22600813)
Why would a country ever bail out a private company? (Except for corruption of course.)

They can always estatise it, but I don't imagine an airliner is strategic enough for that.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Norwegian Air to cancel 85% of flights and temporarily la... by oat_bravo_nap on Monday March 16, 2020 @03:20PM (#22596465)
Relevant portion from article:

> Having lost money each year from 2017 to 2019 and raised cash from shareholders on three occasions, the company’s debts and liabilities had grown to 82 billion Norwegian crowns ($7.9 billion) by the end of last year.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Norwegian Air to cancel 85% of flights and temporarily la... by chatmasta on Monday March 16, 2020 @07:09PM (#22599266)
If that’s true, it’s too bad. Norwegian is my favorite airline for trans-Atlantic flights because of great service and reasonable prices.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Norwegian Air to cancel 85% of flights and temporarily la... by mceachen on Monday March 16, 2020 @03:00PM (#22596167)
Their stock has been hit hard since Feb (trading at 42) to currently trading at 7.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Norwegian Air to cancel 85% of flights and temporarily la... by marvin on Tuesday March 17, 2020 @01:21PM (#22607356)
They're down from an all-time high of 200, so they're considered pretty much toast.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Norwegian Air to cancel 85% of flights and temporarily la... by dirtydroog on Monday March 16, 2020 @04:00PM (#22596926)
Yup, Norwegian Air is about to go bust.
[ Parent | on HN ]