Airlines in a Crisis

Airlines will hve to negotiate with insurance companies to come up with a soulution for that most travel insurances have been suspendd for the time being. If a solution could be found for that insurances sold with an airline ticket could have a certain minimum of cover also during these pandemic times, a lot more potential passenger would be reassured that they wouldn't just be abandoned to their own fate in some foreign country. This would of course include that airlines commit to arrange rescue flights if travel restictions will again be increased while people are away on a holliday. And that at a ticket price not overly goughing. Countries like Cyprus have shown the way forward by guaranteeing that a certain minimum amount of care will be given also to foreign CoVid19 patiens. Only if the different sectors within the travel industry come together with solutions and agreed on sharing the burdon can customers be entized back in numbers that will make things commecially viable

Specially Low Fares airlins without distinctly different seat configurations for where passengers can choose to pay more for a more separate seatig arrangements, should at this time consider to give ereryone an option to increase the amount of potential customers. Some have suggested to call the Couldn't Care Less class (CCLc) the CoVid19 class but that could give the wrong associations and suggest the airline actually accept infected people on board. Something that should of course be avoided with all possible measures. Sanitized class (Sc) would have middle seat free and cleaning would be done between each flight. Cleaning would include wiping down all touch surfaces like armrests, tray tables, seat backs and similar, including anything you are likely to touch when boarding and disembarking. In additional each passenger should be supplied with packed sanitizing napkins if they want to do additional wipe downs themselves. They would also board from the front. and their toilets

For the time being roster the same crews together to avoid the risk of many sets of crew being infected and out of action. The risk of an asymptomatic crew member becoming a superspreader wandering from plane to plane and infecting a large number of crews should be tken seriously. These asymptomatic superspreaders do not show any sign that would let you stop them coming to work. No temperature and no constant coughs. They are still harbouring the virus and can spread it simply by talking. Or by hand transfer and that would not be stopped by mask wearing. Many crew are young and this increases the percentage of individuals that when infected will be asymptomatic. In addition the hunt for costs among airlines have resulted in a lower than average availability of sick benefits and paid days off, leading to many crew going to work even if feeling slightly under the weather. Actually this behaviour is encouraged by many airlines. You might have many additional crews at this time that 

It is disapointing that Norwegian as one of only a few airlines in the world have not made a success of flying cargo with the 787. In these CoVid19 times the demand for cargo flights have been immense and many airlines with belly holds capable of taking air containers have been grabbing the chance to get some hard needed cash into the business. Some have even manually loaded cargo in the seats or temporarily taken the seats out for easier loading of both bagged and palletized cargo. All loaded through the normal aircraft doors. Why not Norwegian. It is not like Norway or the other places it used to fly to and between don't have airfreight needs. All we hear from the company is they can't do it profitably. Have the way they layed off people made it to difficult or expensive to take some back for possibilities. Including also constantly new openings for passenger flights. Is their cargo department to unimaginative when it comes to spotting, utilizing and negotiating deals th

Norwegian came out with its plan to serve the norwegian market with norwegian package hollidays at the same day as the government opened up for travel within the Nordic countries. Only work related for now but this government have proved so wobbly when it comes to standing by its decisions that anything could happen. actually most countries governments have in this crisis proved that any reopening schedule tends to be fast forwarded as the lightest political pressure appear from all sorts of groups. This means an airline like Norwegian that have and still should serve an international market need to be planning far ahead to take advantage of all planned opening dates for borders and relaxation dates for quarantines. In addition to having contingency plans for when these move forward. As they also should have plans for if they get more restrictive again. If something is announced by any of the countries they could fly to Norwegian as an airline should within hours come up with a pla

He was on a loose footing during the crew strikes last year when his own milking of the company, shortly after getting his crews agreeing to personal cuts, came to the fore. Now it is clear he neither built up enough buffers in the good years or took action fast enough when the millions started running out seriously much faster than they where coming in. How do you manage to loose all your shareholder funds in a quarter where the pandemic for the  mostly was somewhat absent and only did real damage in the last 2-3 weeks. Qustions need to be asked whether loosing all the funds during the winter and then reestablishing them during the summer has been a regulaire thrait over the years. In that case somebody have been compensated way to well, including the CEO himself. Not at all according to the comapany's real overall results. In general the pandemic learns us that top managment compensations need to be even less concentrated on short term quarterly and yearly goals, and much mo

Or is it hibernation for the year. They refused to hold a press conference when the first quarter results came out and issued just a written statement. There where no new plans for this year at a time when other airlines left, right and center come up with their back to business plans from June/July. Instead just what had happened from January to March, so pretty much pre CoVid19. A company like Norwegian should squander no time or opportunity getting a momentum going by presenting a basic timeline for coming back from the nearly dead. It can always be adjusted as more countries opens up, or closes down again, but get something up there you can sell and get those prepayments in. Something that will make the lease holder share owners happy that there is lights not only at the end of the tunnel but also in it. And a chance for some early payback also for the power by the hour deal. Not to mention that any positive news on more planes in the air can only lead to a real upswing in the s

Scandinavian Airline Systems divulged today that its its share owner value at the end of the quarter were -65 million Skr and the company is technically bust. That explains why it didn't take up the loan offer from the Norwegian government that demanded a ownership ratio of 8%.The swedish and danish loans can then neither been seen as normal business loans since they where given to a company with in reality no share holder funds whatsoever. 65 million Skr might not be such a large sum for an airline, but normally one would adjust sample the Goodwill account to see too that one at least was on the postive side with shareholder funds. Have the company maximized the crisis for the purpose of gaining political momentum for their bailouts, to such an extent they are in legally murky waters. Even though they are going for a crisis issue of new shares it doesn't change the fact that in the meantime the company is being run for the creditors money. Is this the new normal. As long

The one part of Norwegian's top leaders that seems to be doing ok even in Corona times is Finance represented by Geir Karlsen. But then he was the CEO for a few months. On the other hand this concurrent story of delayed aand abandoned presentations of the current staate of affairs is wearing a litle on the mantle gained during the financial restructuring of the airline. Operations is not doing well in neither running an airline consiting of a fleet of 7 planes. Nor can they organize the and neither do they have a plan for how to expand and test the waters for other possiblilities. With that we can put a minus on the PR and press handling department because the way they have defended this shambles reminds us of the days of Comical Ali. Engineering also seems pretty distant if they think having only 7 planes in action instead of rotating the whole fleet to keep it current and avoid massive maintenance costs at the end. And what about that other Dreamliner fleet where nothing is m

Some years back both the Chief Pilot and the Director of Engineering disappeared from the MOL's Z table. Last year the Chief Operations Officer, representing both the aforementioned and the rest of operations left and was not replaced. This spring it was the Chief Marketing Officer after for Ryanair to be a relatively few years both at the company and at the top table. One would think Wilson after so many years in Ryanair would know it's resources and could quickly find some new Chiefs. Or is the airline a bit struck by MOL's role and struggling to find its footing as a multi airline group. Should O'Leary have his Chiefs table with all the Airline CEO's plus some legal and joint services like IT. Then Eddie could create his own Z table with managment controlling all the branches of the core Ryanair airline. They must be struggling now when 75% of the staff do not have direct leadership representation at the Monday morning meeting.

One would think a price of 4.50 Nkr for Norwegian shares that with all the new shares values the company higher than when the share was worth 300 Nkr would scare of any buyers. But no. Institutional and experienced share owners sell while small savers buy in and think the share over some years will again rise to the 300. That would in case value the company at more than 9 times the value of Ryanair and probably more than all the other publicly traded airlines in the world combined. Norwegian should take advantage for this surge for the share and expand the share capital again. The last expansion was seriously oversubscribed. It seems like at every turn for some reason the company is issuing seriously fewer new shares than the market could swallow. Except that is for when it decided to force them on bond holders and leasing companies.

Hibernation is not the right path for any airline. Neither planes nor crew nor admin or financials benefits from it. They should: Start to rotate planes so all of them get an airing on a regular basis. Utilize freight opportunities so also 787's can get flight time. Start to rotate pilots so they are all ajour with license requirements and up to date on their flying skills. Negotiate with government for flexible utilization of percentage return to work schemes for all employees. Flexibly add additional later departures for those departures that fill up quickly. It is not like they don't have neither slots, planes or crew available an mass. Look for near future opportunities in other scandinavian countries where governments may not keep their travel advice for foreign travel as restrictive aw Norway. Prepare their spanish bases for Scandinavia to the sun as soon as that and other med countries opens up for summer seasonal travel. This would also placate possible lawsuits l

It have been suggested that Norwegian could give their (ex)pilots some at least simulator time so they can keep their licences current during the CoVid19 crisis. A pilot must have ompleted 3 take offs and landings in the last 90 days to be able to fly a jet with passengers without pairing with an instructor. Having decided to park most of its fleet for 12 months a lot of their pilots will become uncurrent. Keeping their certificates alive should be a very small outlay in a difficult situation. Think of it. Norwegian is flying no ne of their 787 fleet whatsoever as part of their 7 planes in the air program. That could lead them with no current pilots whatsoever, including instuctors/examiners, to start up again. That could be a massive headache. Not to talk about that parking planes outdoors in Europe without flying now and then is a maintenance nightmare. Pretending they don't know these pilots is the worst they could have done and places the company in a difficult and uncler

Over time Norwegian should be split in 2 units under an umbrella managments to purify the single aircraft type principe of a true Low Cost airline. There can be no profitable Low Fares without Low Costs. The short haul (NSH) 737 part should concentratte on servinf te scandi/nordic market where it can capitalize on its namerecognition and customer belongingness. with additional routes from there to sun destinations and other Norwegian long haul hubs. The long haul (NSL) 787 part should be based elshewhere like Dublin or London Gatwick. Together with overall management of both companies. From here it would become the only really independent Low Fares intercontinental airline. All others are just offspring of full service airlines where the core of the company are not really in it 100%. Both parts should initially during the pandemic offer a Sanitized class and a Couldn't Care Less class (see other post) to appeal to the broadest market and get more flying. As time goes on they

Many of them are talking about how good their air conditioning are but would probably them selves not thrust sample a packed pub that relied on their ac instead of physical separation in CoVid19 times. They talked against temperature checks at airports unitl they discovered that that meant they themselves had to take action. Then they where all for it. Masks was unworkable until the only alternative was middle seat. All of a sudden the masks where the bees knees. While Joyce, Walsh, O'Leary, Wilson and others are again and again touting the same frase that nobody have been infected on a plane, they know at the same time that that the opposite would be difficult to prove without reasonable doubt. It would require you driving directly from a 14 day quarantine to the airport in a car by yourself and all the way to the aircraft stairs. Then doing the same in the other end. An impossibility. When listening to these characters you need to interpret every word as widely as possible. T

Airlines that don't supply masks free in CoVid19 times could let the demand for masks improve their income. Sell them at checkin and when they check at boarding that all passengers where masks they should at the same time offer them for sale. Also on board for they who need a replacment. Charge somthing that can easily be bagged and counted later. The mask itself is the receipt for they who asks. Since Lidl is charging 49 Euro for a pack of 50 masks I would suggest to charge 2 Euro per masks to passengers. Or 20 Nkr. Basically something round at a common coin size that can be easily collected handsfree and don't require change.

Airlines that normally do not allow changes or give refunds should draw a line in the sand and say bookings after such and such a date will be to the rules unless travel advice changes and we can no longer fly you. For tose more service minded airlines who always used to issue refunds for a number of reasons, it would help on passenger confidence that historic refunds were actually issued and one could see a current timeline for waiting time for refunds of potential new bookings. If one changes once mind or travel advice changes. Few will commit to booking new flights if they are still awaiting refund of old bookings. And even less so if they think new purchases will just end up with no actual flying and their money gone into an uncertain black hole. Who would book today with an airline pleading the poor mouth to governments in the news every day, and risk being left with just an usecured worthless voucher. It should also be made clear to all passengers that government mandated pena

If smaller single aisle planes are introduced on longer and longer routes post CoVid19, due to preferences for maintaining frequencies even with reduced demand, somebody better convert some more widebodies to dedicated cargo planes pronto.It is not all about passengers and departure conveniency. Containerized or palletized airfreight at scale in a narrow would be a stuffing and  handling nightmare. Of course Amazon is developing a fleet of Prime marked 737 NG dedicated freighters, so we will not totally depend on continued production of widebodies when the current stock of ex passenger aircraft to convert runs out.  However it is not only about the transatlantic Europe to New York market. Other flights are much longer and beyond the reach of even the Aibus 321 XLR.

Some airlines, like Ryanair, demand all online check in while others, like Emirates, demand desk check in. Some want more checked in baggage and less carry on while others demand more carry on and less checked in. It seems that full service airlines want more control and less obstacles demanding check ins where they can hand out kits of sanitizing measures and less passenger handling by hand of anything in the cabin. Low Fares airlines go for more of what the passenger can do and less of what they have to do. A policy they have pushed for years. So no real change there then, even in a communicable disease crisis.

Not issuing refunds means airlines have been living on unearned revenue and were for all sense and purpose trading while technically bust even before this crisis. The longer they are allowed to go without paying back what they haven't earned, the longer they are in reality now trading on their passengers money as well as their other creditors. All this money should technically have been in a similar to escrow account until either the airline earned it or they refunded it. These airlines have been paying out dividends and share buybacks with money that wasn't theirs. I know large amount of cash sitting in bank accounts are very tempting but when one do a lot of advanced sales is it part of being an honest business. This goes also for they who don't normally issue refunds. The unexpected will always arrive. Hoping it won't arrive during your time at the helm is not an example of good leadership. Prudent is not a negative word in finances.

Take the analogy of going for a walk and you meet people that don't care about social distancing. You just know that if they are careless when you meet them they will be just as careless in other aspects of dealing with the spread.  Always choose a route where you are the one that controls the distance. Always choose an airline that has taken more precautions than the absolute minimum that won't cost them much. Smart travellers will make up their mind about what amount of precautions is necessary and will choose an airline that supplys them. However I'm not saying an airline, even a low fares one, couldn't cater for both. Instead of a class divider curtain they could have a CoVid19 precaution divider curtain. In front you get free middle seats, cleaning of toilets between each customer and cleaning of cabin between each flight. Behind, for a bit less money, you get nightly cleaning and shared armrests.

If your airline continues an albeit limited trolley service in CoVid19 times, it is important that your staff don't become super spreaders. They should of course wear masks and gloves. But the gloves  should also be cleanable so they can be treated with hand sanitizer between each customer. This hinders immediate transfers of viruses from the card/cash of one customer to the items of the next. Remember that virus stays alive for minutes on skin, hours on clothes but days on hard surfaces. In general, if you are doing to much with your hands to clean them constantly, just wear gloves and clean them. The same goes for they who are allergic to cleaning stuff or get sores from washing their hands to often.

Some airlines see their strict adherence to social distancing as a marketing opportunity. Promising doubting passengers that they won't be seated within touching distance of somebody they don't know will attract people nervous about being infected in an environment they have little control over. https://simpleflying.com/jetblue-july-social-distancing/ This is the way to get more people up in the air. Not coming with unconfirmed swada about that nobody gets infected on an airplane just because it yet haven't been proven to the full extent of the law. If airline executivess really think their Hepa filtered airconditioning systems are so excellent in stopping all contamination would they approve if pubs and all other indoor crowded spaces also just demanded masks and turned their airconditioning up. They also suffer economically if they can't stuff people in to the degree they did before.

Some airlines are singing the poor man tune to their staff at the same time as they are announcing postivity about the future to the stock markets. Can their eagerness to plead the crisis to get support and cheap loans from governments combine with the need to keep their share prices high to please owners and secure the share price their own bonuses and share options depends on. The Ryanair unions are certainly copping on to that not every thing is like it seems and telling the airlines management they can't have it both ways. Themselves agreeing only to a 1 year cut in their own salaries while saying to their staff that they must take a 5 year cut. https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-conornavirus-ryanair/unions-say-ryanair-exaggerating-covid-threat-to-undermine-conditions-idUKKBN22W1YZ This reminds me of how healthy a bonus the SAS CEO got out of negotiating down his staff terms and conditions while that airline was in a crisis a few years back. Even in a crisis the have

Did Schram forget that the world has changed when he today presented his new'ish senior managment for Norwegian. The plan from last winter should have been put out to pasture and a new one created more suited to corona and a return. Getting in old sales colleagues to sell more inflight stiff to passengers no longer existing is a bit to late. Will these new brooms first start in April next year when the company plans to have more than 7 planes in the air. The won't sell much aboard a plane where everyone wears a mask. And the experience is more about not getting infected rather than anything else. The position, in addition to Karlsen's, that is most of importance is Chief of Operations. And they haven't filled that. No wonder they have problemes handling even 7 planes. The CEO must have been in a hurry to present his plan before the new owners get control of their shares, get organized and come up with their own plan. Or person/team that will form that plan. Will th

What is the plan for the lenders new shareholdings in Norwegian. Why did they not just take the planes back and finished with it. A loss is a loss and better be over and done with it and move on. Are they just leaving the Dreamliners there hoping the Norwegian government through unsecured loans to Norwegian will pay for maintenance and parking for them until the market returns. Then take them back only at such a time when existing or new airlines make signals to move on the Transcontintal markets Norwegian left behind. Unless Norwegian's management in the near future quickly turns around and show they have a plan for all those aircrafts one would assume the planes real owners will take them back. In the meantime they can always make some extra cash by selling the billions of new Norwegian shares to upset norwegians. On the other hand would they not be better off getting in a new management with a vision for the company. A vision for how planes could be utilized whatever it take

Financing your airline by selling your planes on delivery at price+ to a leasing company against paying extra high rents for a contracted amount of years, is proving to be a bit of a trap in times when you can't make an icome from said planes. A company like Norwegian have proven that to all when they saw the necessity of handing over control to their lenders by converting some of the debt to shares and making the before 100% shareowners into mere 5% owners. This type of financing is more like the old fashioned cropholder, but on a company level. A practiche that ultimately lead to you becoming a pure tenant of your own holding, and possibly to eviction from it, the first time the harvest failed.

If you are ok on a plane because of the excange rate and filtlering capacity of its air circulation system, should pubs be ok to stuff them in at full capacity as long as they install Hepa filters in their aircondition and turn it up to the same rate as on a plane. What about supermarkets, shops and hairdressers. Would the corona world be able to go back to normal . Well they could according to IATA. The argument from there and pushed by many airline chiefs is that due to the advanced airconditioning and the filtering capacity of the Hepa filters airlines hould be excempt from the physical distancing required on al other business premises. That and for economical reasons off course that they can't make as much profit if their capacity is reduced due to having middle seats blocked off. But the economical argument against social distancing is no different for any other type of business on the planet.

Let's take som quick math to Ryanair's O'Leary's claims that middle seat free is unsustainable. According to the Ryanair results presentation their average fare is 37 euro. Add 50% and it becomes 55.5 Still below Easyjet's current of 59 according to the same presentation. Will an extra 18 euro 50 cents really stop people from flying if it means they could be safer from viruses. It seems more of a pshycological problem for top brass rather than for any real economic reason, that airlines think they should be excempt from the physical distancing that every other business have to put up with. Some will always persist on squezing the last of capacity out of both materiel and staff, even at the cost of suffering, for others. The only thing a temporry 50% rise in ticket prices put an end to is O'Leary's plans about releasing a rush of Low Fares to get further market share from competitors, as long as they don't do just the same with borrowed money. I am su

Problem exists because airlines in their wisdom decided that in cattle class every seat should not have its own 2 armrests. There is little help in cleaning the bathroom frequently if the person in the seat beside you leave the virus on the armrest you both share. This could have been prevented if a 3+3 aircraft was 25cm/10inches wider so one could fit 4 more independent armrests. This would give space for extra 5cm/2inch wide armrests and a small gap between the armrests of adjacent seats. A gap that these days could be used for sample a dividing curtain, or a small shield to 100% ensure you don't touch your neighbour, or anything he/she touched, with the hand that soon will inadvertently be touching your face.

Is Easyjet well served by getting on the wrong side of a 30% shareholder in difficult times. Is the continued concentration on growth for the benefit of the shareholders that take all the risk, or for increasing managements incentive packages. There are enough samples of corporate greed where top management walks away with millions even though the results tanks and staff ends up getting laid off. Easyjet management says an outside independent have looked at its dealings with Airbus and found nothing untoward. An independent company is only as independent as the one that pays their bill want them to be. Self-hiring an "independent" is a well known way of getting in ahead of an investigation instigated by somebody else.I am not saying anything will be hung on the current management of Easyjet, but smaybe something will stick on Airbus that could be used for negating the contract without penalties. Even more likely since they have already settled something similar. Easyjet ma

Norwegian worked up a good brand in Low Fares transatlantic and to parts of Asia. Now when they are retracting to the Norway and Scandinavia market, plus probably something to bring those customers to some sun like Spain, Italy, France and similar, it leaves a market, new fleet and crews ready for easy prickings for the right operator. London Gatwick could be losing some of its main operators on the transatlantic market with Virgin shrinking and BA retrenching to Heathrow. So there is an opportunity for a partial ready made market to be exploited when traffic returns. And chances of a head start for they willing to dip a toe in the water, with the potential of real returns. Many have tried and failed in Europe-US low fares. Few had such a chance that now exists to make it also a true Low Cost. Utilizing the worked up brand of Norwegian could give an instant ready supply of potential passengers. Combine that with a great opportunity for exceptional deals on leases, low price on fuel

Airlines should the minute the lockdowns started have realised that all bookings made was on a diferent basis for a world no longer existing. They should then have cancelled all previous bookings, reset their systems and treated it as beginning of time and asked all previous and potential new customers to book again when a new schedule where made available. Only if refunds are made can new customers be convinced that the money they pay for new bookings will not disappear in the same voucher hole as their previous now cancelled bookings. Specially if some of the carefull reopenings are reversed and more flights are again cancelled. Problem is many airlines have been treating funds received for future bookings as a part of their cash reserves. Good accounting practices says they are unearned revenue and should be booked as such, only coming into the earned and profit accounts when travel happens. However many airlines have been tempted to see these amounts that can build up in their bi

Many remember the old class separating curtains used in planes. This could be moved from row to row depending on how many business class customers there was. A similar curtain on every row of seats would be a very good physcial barrier to stop droplets expelled with sneezes, or during conversations, traveling over several rows. An extension could be added down to the armrest between each seat in a row for complete cocooning and removing the need for leaving seats free. When you have taken your seat you sanitize your hands and your are safe even if you touch your face now ad then because your hands will then not touch anything touched by anyone else. Social distancing by walls works in first class so why not. And row separating curtains have been allowed for a long time as a movable class separation. A company has already made a sample: https://simpleflying.com/middle-seat-privacy-screens/ However they could be larger and on the armrest instead of taking a whole seat, to allow full oc

Social distancing must be practiced everywhere els ein corona times, why not on airlines. No business think physical distancing is good for profit but most have to accept it asa necessity in a hopefully temporary new reality. Airline management though seem to find the whole concept difficult. Some of them are so used just for profit to stuff their customers in to the absolute legal limit and without comforts that they don't. Safety is just because accidents are bad for business. In a differnt time they would be landlords sending their tenants on coffinships to America so they could utilize the vacated land better. Problem with that way of thinking arise when low-low prices are no longer the be all and end all for if people want to fly or not. In dangerous times people become price unelastic and will pay what it costs if they absolutely have to fly. And if not necessary they won't no matter how cheap it is. This concept seeems to escape many of todays airline chiefs. Even thoug

The airline have showed impressive adaptability converting some of its currently little needed passenger aircrafts to cargo during the current crisism taking opportunity to make cash out of opportunity. What we expect from a island nation where road freight is not an alternative for international transport. And from a company that is used to take geographical advantage of that one without extra freedoms can legally fly passengers between 2 other countries if one stops over in own country. https://simpleflying.com/icelandair-767-freighter-photos/

The company have been busy reorganizing it's finance side with converting parts of loans and leases to shares to save the company, selling out the existing shareholders in the process. What have been missing is some operational management and ideas. One would think that with only 7 out of 160 planes in the air they would be on top of things, but no. Daily we read new articles about why they can't keep to in Norway mandated social distancing with middle seat free, and ecuses why. Do not say much for either management nor their IT systems or their control on the aircrafts. Since the newish CEO came in we have been waiting for when his operational plan for how Norwegian should be run would be announced. One certainly can't say he hit the ground running in that department. So far everything new is financial and under the former tempe CEO's remit Norwegian could doo so much more out of this crisis. They have 787's that can take air-containerized freight, but have sho

It is not only ppe. I have som packages with tracking on the way from China to Ireland. Anything non medical related just get trurned back by security at the airport in China, goes back to the bus station, gets sent to the airport and same again and again. With a 10 day waiting at each step. 3 times now in 3 months, and not going anywhere. 4 other small packages all medical related just goes missing either in China or on destination airports in Europe. Probably stolen because its something covid related you could use at home and people in the system see what it is due to the declaration description. Or sits at airports in Europe for days and weeks awaiting further handling. Earlier packages often went from China to Europe via Russia. This seems to have stopped completely. And it is not only Cina. A postcard took nearly 2 months from Ireland to Norway, My easter greeting arrived yesterday. There is obviously no effective alternative organized for post even within Europe when planes ha

No matter if they have their planes on pay by the hour, should Norwegian circulate both planes and pilots to keep them in certification and at peek performance. Neither Norway nor Europe is a desert where you can just park you planes and think they are in the same condition after a few months. And pilots need a certain amount of take offs and landings to keep their certificates current. Rotate at least regularly all instructors on both types of aircraft. It isn't a coincidence that Ryanair is starting up again before 4 months has passed, and that they have been doing regular touch and go's at their bases.

Have Ryanair's O'Leary lost the ability to ajust. He is complaining left right and center about why not everything is like before. Why should they have to practise distancing, why is there quarantines and why do the airline have to do any changes instead of somebody else like the airports taking care of all the bothersome stuff. Did he completely forget his schoolyear teachings about price unelastic demand. We see every day reports about people who would be willing to pay a bit more if there just was flights. They who want to and/or are desperate to travel will pay what it costs. But many will not travel for any price because they are scared. Either scared because they don't trust airlines to adapt to the new distancing safety standards or hardline practice the masks thing. Or scared they will be on a plane full of ignoramas who not only will not practice it there but do the same everywhere else and therefor be pestilence carriers. Better sit back and wait for better time