Ba eclipsed by Norwegian between New York and Europe
 

Please remember that on FT you should include at least some of the contents when including a link. Here it is:

LONDON (Reuters) - Norwegian Air Shuttle (NWC.OL) has overtaken British Airways as the biggest non-U.S. airline on transatlantic routes to and from the New York area, in the latest illustration of the low cost carrier’s move into British Airways territory. Norwegian carried 1.67 million passengers to or from airports in the New York area in the 12 months to the end of July, compared with the 1.63 million carried by British Airways, data from the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey showed.

I am pretty sure that BA will be around in 12 months time. And I'd further wager than BA is bringing in 20% ROACE on that route. I am rather less certain that Norwegian will be so confident on either point, given the collapse of Primera - which used a similar cashflow hand-to-mouth financial model. In the meantime we can enjoy services, and indeed the competition, to Stewart International, up the Hudson River, though some SAFI (Scheduled Airline Failure Insurance) may be wise.

But look at thatNorwegianshare price tanking. Down 20% in a month. Perhaps the markets are smelling blood.

Few things to note here the term New York Area is hopelessly vague. Does it mean JFK/EWR only or points more distant from NYC.

Secondly there's no mention of the Joint Venture or profitability in the route. Mention was made somewhere that the NYLON routes for BA is the only £1bn sales route in the world.

Lastly no mention is made of profit in the article and as the differential is c50k passengees per year I would still a guess that BA make more profit than Norwegian.

I'm actually very surprised by that stat. It's an interesting one, even allowing for Norwegian's regional services, many of which have now been axed.

BA's revenue from those 1.63million pax will clearly have been far greater than that of Norwegian, as I suspect would their profit.

Personally I see no value in SAFI when a credit card will do the same job for free, but certainly anyone buying Norwegian should make sure they are protected one way or the other.

Still BA has long been the leading foreign airline on TATL routes and I believe NYC-Europe and while BA no doubt dominates in yield airlines do need to fill the back of the plane pax too hence the poor track record of all premium carriers. It could also be that Norwegian is stimulating new travelers with its low fares, so perhaps in some cases additive. Still, I think it's a significant accomplishment.

Also worth considering the cargo yield for BA (On Passenger Services) which would I imagine be considerable on NYLON compared to Norwegian. Totting all the numbers up, the profit per flight would be heavily weighted in BA's favour.

Well an another pointless "news" about BA. Can someone write up something like Ba or Norwegian used more aircraft tires in a year? Also I'm interested how many miles Ba and Norwegian drove on New York metropolitan airports' taxiways in a year using a plane with only two engines?

I think that's is one of the learnings from the Primera crash - it's not that simple. If you are overseas and about to return on a failed airline, your options - price wise - could be horrendously priced. Particularly if you absolutely have to travel (e.g. to return to work, kids getting back to school). Moreover people thought their insurance would cover this. Well I think it would be only a small minority whose insurance would cover this, many policies specifically exclude airline failure unless the SAFI component is purchased. For example the John Lewis Finance travel insurance policy doesn't include it at the Essential Level, you need the Plus or Premier levels to include this, and they are generally considered one of the better insurers out there. This also applies to those with expensive "component" holidays - hotels, car hire, excursions booked separately and the airline fails the day before travel. The credit card protection just covers the lost spend - which may be OK if you are months away from travel.

Winter is coming, fuel prices are up, share price is tanking. Fasten your seatbelts Norwegian.

Hardly a surprise....I don't know what to say either.