Airlines in a Crisis

Gustafson in SAS has taken his hat and gone, to a different kind of business all together.  He has been controversial in recent years, How he received significant bonuses after getting other employes to reduce their renumeration packages in recent crisis did not help SAS when pilots went on strike a couple of years ago.  Maybe his greed got the better of him and he foresaw that for the coming years his performance bonuses would not mount up to much. Specially since most airline have negotiated multiyear CoVid19 reductions in the pay of staff and therefore will have problems restoring senior managment perks faster or significantly higher in this period. His share options and other renumeration schemes is also probably solidly underwater after the refinancing SAS went through in 2020. Resulting in any financial loss by leaving would be minimized.   What should SAS look for in their next leader.  First someone who can him/herself show moderation and not only demand...

There is the overambitious expansion and desire to play in the big league with big orders for brand new planes, of several different types no less. But others have gone big and succeeded, but maybe not so much in the airline industry that is plagued with protection from your creditors and financial rescues. The transition from the enthusiastic well liked entrepenour to the next CEO is important for most companies. It usually happens because the founder have got out of his depth, or simple become to old. In Norwegian Kjos flew a bit too close to the sun . There is also that the airline was built on a belief of continually better market conditions and no savings for a rainy day. So did they choose an individual with a lot of airline experience and a lot of usefull contacts that could come in with own ideas and change things around from day 1. Not at all. They chose somebody that first spent 3 months learning before he took the reins. And then speculated for another 3 months on how he cou...

The boardroom changes planned for Norwegian seems small compared to that the entire ownership structure have changed since the current board was chosen. Only 2 representatives from leasing companies that now owns a very large part of the airline. And only 1 other new board member. That is shockingly lazy work from the consultants hired in to assist in the process. But maybe not so unexpected since the same people where responsible for finding the new management just being put into action at the company. For an airline with only 8 planes flying they on the other hand certainly  have decided to reward the board handsomely for the coming year. One would hope the planned reduction from 3 to 2 weeks for notifications of emergency general meetings is a sign that other changes are planned in the near future by some of the soon to be elected members of either the board or the selection committee. Changes are needed, and quickly before the current management squanders on a hibernation ...