Norwegian Long Haul

Norwegian Long Haul
IATA ICAO Callsign
DY NAX NORSHUTTLE
Founded 1 January 2012[1]
Operating bases
Frequent-flyer program Norwegian Reward
Fleet size 10
Destinations 11
Parent company Norwegian Air Shuttle
Headquarters Fornebu (Bærum), Norway
Key people Bjørn Kjos
Website norwegian.com

Norwegian Air Shuttle operates "long-haul" flights to Asia and the United States through a fully owned subsidiary Norwegian Long Haul AS which operates an all-Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet. Norwegian Long Haul is registered in Norway, and is managed by Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA from its head office at Fornebu. Norwegian Long Haul does not operate any own routes, but instead its capacity is used to operate the routes of parent company Norwegian Air Shuttle (IATA code DY) to Asia and North America.[2]

History

Formed in January 2012 by Norwegian Air Shuttle to start long-haul operations, the company commenced transatlantic flights on 30 May 2013.[3] The first scheduled flights were from Oslo and Stockholm to New York City and Bangkok, originally with wet-leased A340-300 aircraft while the airline awaited delivery of the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. In March 2013 Norwegian Air Shuttle confirmed a new long haul route from Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm to Fort Lauderdale, beginning on 29 November 2013.[4] Norwegian has also (in September 2013) announced flights from Stockholm to Oakland and Los Angeles beginning May 2014, and also Copenhagen-Los Angeles, Copenhagen-New York, Oslo-Oakland, Oslo-Los Angeles, and Oslo-Orlando. Flights from London Gatwick to New York, Los Angeles, and Fort Lauderdale were announced in October 2013, with service on these routes to commence in July 2014.[5] The airline announced in April 2015, the beginning of flights to San Juan, Puerto Rico from Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm and London Gatwick beginning in November 2015. Also announced were flights to St. Croix, US Virgin Islands from Copenhagen beginning on November 6, 2015. Permission for thrice-weekly flights between Cork and Boston has been sought in 2015.[6]

In July 2016 the airline plans to launch flights from Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport to New York (John F. Kennedy International Airport), Los Angeles and Fort Lauderdale.[7]

Destinations

Fleet

Norwegian Long Haul Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner on final approach to New York-JFK Airport, April 2016

As of February 2016 Norwegian Long Haul's fleet consists of the following aircraft:[8]

Norwegian Long Haul fleet
Aircraft In Service Orders Options Passengers Notes
C Y Total
Boeing 787-8 8 — 2 32 259 291 Combination of three owned and five leased[9][10]
Boeing 787-9 2 28 10 35 309 344 11 aircraft to be leased from Jordache Enterprises (MG Aviation) and AerCap[11][12]
Total 10 28 12

Norwegian Air Shuttle CEO Bjørn Kjos was in meetings with Polish politicians in April 2013 about the possible acquisition of LOT Polish Airlines, triggering speculation as to Norwegian Air Shuttle's interest in obtaining more Boeing 787 Dreamliners.[13] During an interview with The Wall Street Journal in July 2014, Bjørn Kjos hinted at buying 20 more 787-9 Dreamliners, with deliveries from 2018, though the airline had refused to confirm this order plan.[14] In October 2015 the airline confirmed that they will get 19 more 787-9 Dreamliners, which will become the largest Dreamliner order from a European carrier.[15][16]

The airline's Dreamliners are initially registered in Ireland and the Civil Aviation Authority of Norway had given Norwegian Air Shuttle a temporary exemption to operate aircraft not registered in Norway.[17] All of the 787-8 Dreamliners have since been re-registered in Norway, while the 787-9s are registered in Ireland.

Awards

Norwegian Air Shuttle has been awarded several years in a row as best low-cost airline in Europe. In 2015 their long-haul airline Norwegian Long Haul was awarded the best low-cost long-haul airline in the world by Skytrax World Airline Awards:

Criticism

Flight delays

From the airline's start-up in May 2013, 73 out of 97 New York and Bangkok arrivals to Oslo were delayed through September 2013[20] and two of the aircraft were later grounded because of technical issues.[21][22] Norwegian Long Haul received extensive media criticism for its delays and lack of care for their suffering passengers.[23][24][25] The airline's replies to the criticism has differed from deep apologies[26] to neglect and blaming of the aircraft manufacturer and maintenance sub-contractors.[27][28] Several different sources claim Norwegian has used too tight fleet schedules with its Boeing Dreamliners,[29][30] having used only 3 aircraft for 3 different continents,[31] but the airline disagrees.[29][30][31] One of the airline's own technical employees and head of Aircraft Engineers International, Norway, was later threatened by the airline with job termination for publicly answering to the cause of the numerous delays with the airline's Dreamliners as a calculated risk by Norwegian Long Haul.[32][33][34]

Norwegian Long Haul wet-leased two Airbus A340-300 from Hi Fly in 2013,[35] but still reached its peak of delays at the end of the year, with a 24-hour delay on its New York - Oslo route.[36] In early January 2014, the airline refused to have been overusing their Dreamliners beyond their operational capabilities and noted to have set punctuality as their goal for 2014.[37] By 2nd and 3rd of May 2014, Norwegian Long Haul passengers experienced flight delays between 13 and 15 hours.[38]

Labour related

Against recommendations of the largest aircraft attendant's union in Norway, the Parat union, Norwegian inquired the Norwegian government in 2012 with threats to flag out abroad and demands for rights to hire Asian (non-EU) flight and cabin crew without Norwegian work and residence permits.[39] CEO Bjørn Kjos claimed Norwegian [country] flight crews were too expensive for international routes[39] and the airline later stated it would be able to secure jobs in Norway with such rights,[40] although the union itself was not given insight to the specific inquiry made by the airline.[40] The largest umbrella organization of labour unions in Norway, the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions, threatened to boycott the airline if Norwegian's enquired rights was granted by the Norwegian government.[41]

The permits were not given to the airline[42] and Norwegian obtained Irish registrations for its intercontinental operations as a different, separated airline enabling them to hire Thai cabin attendants[43] through an employment agency (Adecco) in Thailand. This was perceived by the Parat union, the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions, the Minister of Labour and the Labour Party (Norway) as social dumping, deliberately undermining Norwegian work rights.[41][44][43][45][43] With the intercontinental airliners now registered in Ireland, rejected by the airline as a flag out as previously threatened,[43] the airline focused its response to the political and labor union related criticism by comparing the salaries of the crew members to the total salary average in the country of the hired attendants.[46][44] In October 2013 the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions revealed it would not extend its business agreement with Norwegian.[44]

References

  1. ↑ "Nøkkelopplysninger fra Enhetsregisteret". brreg.no.
  2. ↑ Annual Report 2012 Corporate Structure
  3. ↑ "Kjos sendte første fly til New York" (in Norwegian). e24/NTB. 30 May 2013. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  4. ↑ AF Ole Kirchert Christensen (2013-03-14). "Til Florida for 3.000 kroner (opd.)". Check-in.dk. Retrieved 2013-05-06.
  5. ↑ Kari Lundgren (2013-10-17). "Norwegian Air to Link London Gatwick to New York, Florida". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2013-10-17.
  6. ↑ "Norwegian Air International". Airliner World: 7. November 2015.
  7. ↑ "Norwegian". Airliner World. April 2016: 7.
  8. ↑ "Norwegian Long Haul Fleet Details and History". planespotters.net.
  9. ↑ "DP Aircraft I Limited Acquisition of Aircraft". Wall Street Journal. 10 October 2013. Retrieved 3 November 2013.
  10. ↑ "Irish Civil Aircraft Register". Irish Aviation Authority. 1 December 2013. Retrieved 30 December 2013.
  11. ↑ "Newsdesk - Norwegian". norwegian.com.
  12. ↑ Walsgard, Kari Lundgren Jonas Cho. "Norwegian Air Boosts 787 Fleet With $5 Billion Boeing Deal". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2015-10-22.
  13. ↑ NRK
  14. ↑ "WSJ: - Norwegian vil kjøpe 20 nye Dreamlinere". www.dn.no.
  15. ↑ "Norwegian Air makes largest single order of Boeing Dreamliners in Europe". Yahoo Finance. Retrieved 2015-10-22.
  16. ↑ http://worldairlinenews.com/2015/10/22/norwegian-orders-19-additional-344-seat-boeing-787-9-dreamliners/
  17. ↑ "Ny havn for USA-fly". www.dn.no.
  18. ↑ http://theicct.org/transatlantic-airline-efficiency-2014
  19. ↑ http://www.worldairlineawards.com/Awards/a_z_airline_winners.html
  20. ↑ Vidar Enerstvedt. "Norwegians langdistanse-mareritt: Tre av fire forsinket". VG.
  21. ↑ "Norwegian setter også sin andre Dreamliner på bakken". www.dn.no.
  22. ↑ "Mer Dreamliner-trøbbel for Norwegian". www.dn.no.
  23. ↑ Mona Langset. "Forbrukerrådet: Stå på kravene når flyet er forsinket". VG.
  24. ↑ Yngve Bergli. "Forbrukerrådet: - Gi Norwegian bøter nå". adressa.no.
  25. ↑ "- Norwegian tar ikke kundene på alvor". vertikal.no.
  26. ↑ Eirik Mosveen. "Kjos: - Det som har skjedd er helt forferdelig for oss". VG.
  27. ↑ "Misfornøyd Kjos varsler oppvask". VG.
  28. ↑ "Forbrukerombudet slakter Norwegian-informasjon - ABC Nyheter". abcnyheter.no.
  29. 1 2 NRK. "Kjos: – Det har ikke vært bra nok". NRK.
  30. 1 2 Kristin Norli. "Norwegian om alle forsinkelsene: - Så langt fra å være godt nok at..". E24.
  31. 1 2 NRK. "– Har strukket strikken for langt". NRK.
  32. ↑ "Bjørn Kjos flesker til mot flyteknikeren". Dagbladet.no.
  33. ↑ NRK. "Fagforeningstopp kan få sparken". NRK.
  34. ↑ "- Bare fordi du er flytekniker betyr det ikke at du har peiling". www.dn.no.
  35. ↑ "Norwegian Air Leases Airbus Jet After Grounding Dreamliner Again". Skift.
  36. ↑ Karna Buggeland Sælebakke. "Norwegian-flyvning forsinket med ett døgn". VG.
  37. ↑ Dag Fonbæk. "Ikke ett av Norwegians Oslo-Bangkok-fly i rute i desember". VG.
  38. ↑ May Linn Gjerding. "Mer Norwegian-kaos: - Folk gråter i kabinen". VG.
  39. 1 2 E24. "Norwegian kan flytte Dreamlinerne til Sverige". E24.
  40. 1 2 Anders Park Framstad. "SAS flyr med asiatiske ansatte - Norwegian fikk nei". E24.
  41. 1 2 av ©NTB. "LO truer med boikott av Norwegian". vl.no. line feed character in |author= at position 3 (help)
  42. ↑ Jostein Matre. "Kjos: - Norwegian flagger antakelig ut". VG.
  43. 1 2 3 4 NTB. "Norwegians nye Dreamliner registrert i Irland". E24.
  44. 1 2 3 NRK. "Vil ikke boikotte Norwegian". NRK.
  45. ↑ NRK. "– Ligner på sosial dumping". NRK.
  46. ↑ NRK. "– Ligner på sosial dumping". NRK.

External links

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