To turn Norwegian more comprehensive steps are needed
Last years plan of decorating the edges of the accounts with removing a few new non profitable routes seems like the equivalent of putting lipstick on a pig.
Much more needs doing and I doubt the current management are the ones to do it, except for some financial tinkering. They certainly do not seem to have the airline experience needed, or from the right airlines, to know what makes a Low Fares carrier a Low Cost. Neither do the new ones added to the management team recently, who have absolutely no airline experience whatsoever. Are they trying to make Norwegian into a shopping mall or think the website rather than actually flying passengers and stuff is what will make the company profitable.
There are certainly many steps the airline can do to make it more like the model of the industry Southwest. Where the principle of Low Fares Low Cost was first modelled and who have been profitable in nearly all of the years since, with very little industrial strife to boot.
Take the best of Southwest and the best of Ryanair and you would have a very strong model for flying passengers around. And that means removing the frills Norwegian is trying to add. Scandinavia and the world have enough more or less full service carriers and they don't do that great financially. Look at SAS that have 2 governments behind it and still have been living on unearned revenue until the tide went out and they where left more than naked, together with surprise surprise Lufthansa.
This means removing the 2 class system and the overly heavy seats that come with it. Lighten the plane, and the irritation, even further by removing the seat recline mechanisms from all chairs.
Remove everything from the seat that make it difficult to clean, including seat pockets and headrest covers.
Do free seating. Southwest swears by it, and Ryanair started with it until it took in to many chiefs without airline experience that made their mark and their bonuses with short term thinking.
Sell onboard but only what is light and sell in volumes. 99% of the time duty free is just another cart to be lifted into the air for next to no sales. Instead another cart of sandwiches would make turnover.
Simplify the booking process. I have seen airlines go from 3 steps too 7 steps with all the extras different parts of it want to sell, including suitcases. And then back to 3 again when somebody cuts through all the faff.
Simplify the luggage handling and speed up the process at the receiving end.
Do only service items that cost nothing. They you charge for becomes extra work and complicates the process adding difficult to quantify costs.
Don't over time slide the slippery slope to a full service model with the associated high costs while your customers still expect low fares.
Much more needs doing and I doubt the current management are the ones to do it, except for some financial tinkering. They certainly do not seem to have the airline experience needed, or from the right airlines, to know what makes a Low Fares carrier a Low Cost. Neither do the new ones added to the management team recently, who have absolutely no airline experience whatsoever. Are they trying to make Norwegian into a shopping mall or think the website rather than actually flying passengers and stuff is what will make the company profitable.
There are certainly many steps the airline can do to make it more like the model of the industry Southwest. Where the principle of Low Fares Low Cost was first modelled and who have been profitable in nearly all of the years since, with very little industrial strife to boot.
Take the best of Southwest and the best of Ryanair and you would have a very strong model for flying passengers around. And that means removing the frills Norwegian is trying to add. Scandinavia and the world have enough more or less full service carriers and they don't do that great financially. Look at SAS that have 2 governments behind it and still have been living on unearned revenue until the tide went out and they where left more than naked, together with surprise surprise Lufthansa.
This means removing the 2 class system and the overly heavy seats that come with it. Lighten the plane, and the irritation, even further by removing the seat recline mechanisms from all chairs.
Remove everything from the seat that make it difficult to clean, including seat pockets and headrest covers.
Do free seating. Southwest swears by it, and Ryanair started with it until it took in to many chiefs without airline experience that made their mark and their bonuses with short term thinking.
Sell onboard but only what is light and sell in volumes. 99% of the time duty free is just another cart to be lifted into the air for next to no sales. Instead another cart of sandwiches would make turnover.
Simplify the booking process. I have seen airlines go from 3 steps too 7 steps with all the extras different parts of it want to sell, including suitcases. And then back to 3 again when somebody cuts through all the faff.
Simplify the luggage handling and speed up the process at the receiving end.
Do only service items that cost nothing. They you charge for becomes extra work and complicates the process adding difficult to quantify costs.
Don't over time slide the slippery slope to a full service model with the associated high costs while your customers still expect low fares.
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