Originally Posted by BOSTravels (Post 28473610)

The question is: how will legacy carriers survive the capacity onslaught with their high personnel and maintenance costs.

Originally Posted by BOSTravels (Post 28473610)

The question is: how will legacy carriers survive the capacity onslaught with their high personnel and maintenance costs.

Originally Posted by Indo Business

Today in Seattle, Norwegian CEO Bjorn Kjos is preparing to take delivery of the airline's first 737 Max jet. The handover ceremony at the Boeing factory will involve plenty of razzmatazz for airplane geeks before Kjos steps on board for the flight to Oslo. But it also marks an important step in the evolution of Norwegian, with the high-tech jet being a linchpin of the group's efforts to provide low-cost transatlantic travel between Ireland and the US.


But Tore (pronounced Tor-eh) Jenssen won't be there. The CEO of Dublin-based Norwegian Air International (NAI), a subsidiary of Norwegian Air Shuttle, will instead be rubbing shoulders with passengers taking off on the first-ever scheduled transatlantic service from Cork this weekend.


NAI had intended to use the Max aircraft for its inaugural services between Ireland and the US; flights also start from Dublin, Shannon and Belfast on Saturday. But delivery delays mean for now all the routes will use Boeing 737-800 aircraft, which carries fewer passengers, until the Max comes into full service in a few weeks' time.

"We hope to get them on the routes in two to three weeks," says Jenssen (39), over coffee at the small, nondescript NAI headquarters at Dublin Airport where about 80 staff are employed.

<snip>


Interestingly, Ryanair chairman David Bonderman has said Ryanair won't get involved in low-cost transatlantic travel, saying routes between Ireland and the US can't be stimulated by pricing.


Tore disagrees. He points to between 140,000 and 150,000 tickets sold by Norwegian (albeit at very low, introductory fares). And flyers are also prepared to jet to secondary airports. The NAI New York service is to Stewart International Airport, about 80 minutes north of Manhattan. What NAI describes as a Boston service is actually to Providence, Rhode Island, about 70 minutes away. It remains to see now how self-sufficient the routes will be.

Originally Posted by tphuang (Post 28470595)

Their margin was like -24% or something ridiculous like that. I'm sure it will be better in the summer time, but I would imagine they still loose a lot of money. Their entire business model is to grow into profitability by offering really cheap fares. They have a humongous fleet of new orders that need to be paid off somehow. They really don't have any kind of premium service to speak of, so the only way to make money is off these low yields, which is pretty hard to do. And of course, once B6 starts flying TATL out of BOS and JFK at $300 O/W, I'm not sure what happens to Norwegian business plan.

Originally Posted by BOSTravels (Post 28473610)

The question is: how will legacy carriers survive the capacity onslaught with their high personnel and maintenance costs.

Originally Posted by Seth Moore (Post 28525921)

EDIT: Now they're moving my flight there to a Thursday as well... Going to call to see if they can rebook on a different airline for the same days but I have doubts.

Originally Posted by iahphx (Post 28524581)

That's just funny. The legacy carriers will survive by flying places that people want to travel to at fares they are willing to pay for. For the US airlines, at least, business has never been better.

Originally Posted by oliver2002 (Post 28525980)

Erm, what part of ultra lo co carrier did you miss when booking your ticket? Norwegian doesn't have any interline agreement with any other airline, so when you book Norwegian you fly Norwegian. :)

Originally Posted by oliver2002 (Post 28525295)

Umm...
https://twitter.com/Independent_ie/s...60217077092353

Originally Posted by Seth Moore (Post 28527656)

Ah you never know.

I talked to them and they seemed to not really care, it was "fly two days earlier or have a refund." They weren't interested in changing my destination from Paris to London either, which really would make the most sense.

So I guess when you book with these guys you can expect that your travel isn't really confirmed until you're in the air and can see the destination in sight.

Originally Posted by iahphx (Post 28529433)

I would also note that many of the major European airlines have regular strikes and such, so it's not like the competition is super reliable.

Originally Posted by CPH-Flyer (Post 28529462)

Major European airlines will rebook you on partner and competitor airlines' flights to the extend possible to get you to your destination. That's a major difference.