Can Karlsen survive as head of Norwegian

Or rather can he survive without giving up his 11 million bonus. Or should the question be, will he, since it could take him 2 years to make it back.

Question is how much does he want to be CEO or is it just the money that drives him. There is surely another company he could rescue from the brink through financial wizardry.

Schram, the former CEO of Norwegian lasted 18 months. More because ofthe support of a weak board with litle shareholder backing but at the same time without any shareholder unity or even a strong such. And a chairman without much airline background that maybe of that reason picked a CEO without any at all. As soon as kind of new strong shareholders came in and the chairman that picked him for the CEO role was out, so was he.

But is Karlsen what Norwegian needs now. When he came in as CFO he either had any airline background but was a part of the Fredriksen sphere. Fredriksen is again a large shareholder in Norwegian but the time for finanzial wizardry might be vaning and a drive towards operational oportunism a more needed path in a CoVid19 aftermath world. Then some experience from other alternatives than the just the home market and just the Norwegian way of doing things could help.

Norwegian have a recently hired operations head with relatively long Ryanair experience but, there are questions over if that was in toing the corporate line or as an ideas person. And how much of Ryanair's admittably profitable line in how to deal with staff can be transferable to an airline operating under norwegian socialsim scrutiny. But sure their way of operating within maintenance and organising ground operations proably can. And knowing what deals can be had from airports certainly would help.

At the end Nowegian is a Norway headquartered airline and there is certain areas where they have to toe the line. As all airlines that operate in Norway must, which Wizz learned the hard way to their scandinavian market detriment. And Norwegian will have to reign them in even more so now when they have received loans from the taxpayer. When you deal with politicians its not all about the wording of the contracts, but also their intentions. And lawyer speak can't always get you out of that when the press have got a bone and the public then chime in.

It would be good for the financial future of Norwegian if it had a managment that could keep their own snouts out of the trhough for a couple of years. That would make it easier to get a contnuation of the crisis concession out of unions and suppliers. Multimillion bonuses signals that here is a new pot of 7 billion Nkr there for the taking for whoever gets there first. And they, like Karlsen, who have already pocketed will find it hard to stand up to others when they demand their share. Gustafson in SAS had a harder time dealing with the SAS unions after it came out that after the last crisis where he got concessions out of them he pocketed a nice bonus for himself as a reward.