Norwegian mulls Airbus order amid Boeing litigation

Norwegian (DY, Oslo Gardermoen) executives have been meeting with Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) as the all-Boeing carrier considers placing an order with the European manufacturer as litigation with Boeing over previous cancellations drags on, the airline’s chief executive confirmed to Reuters on February 18.

Norwegian put an axe to its entire order backlog with the United States manufacturer, comprising ninety-two B737-8s and five B737-9s, in summer 2020. It subsequently accused Boeing of “gross negligence and shoddy production” in a USD1 billion lawsuit it filed against it and its UK-based European subsidiary, Boeing Commercial Aviation Services Europe Limited.

Since then, the proceedings have dragged on between courts in the US at both the state and federal levels. It did, however, manage to agree with Airbus on the terms to cancel a deal to buy 88 of its aircraft.

Norwegian emerged from a six-month period of bankruptcy protection on May 26, 2021, with less than half of its fleet remaining but with its debt practically annihilated. It is now looking to ramp up its network of European destinations during 2022, with a strong focus on Scandinavia, and to increase the size of its fleet.

“We see it as, shall we say, problematic to construct a fleet plan going forward with Boeing while we are sitting in the middle of a litigation with them,” Karlsen told Reuters on February 18, the same day that Norwegian reported its fourth-quarter and preliminary full-year results for 2021. “So we need to decide on what to do going forward and if it is even at all possible to come to a commercial deal with Boeing. We wish for that, but we haven’t succeeded so far.”

He added that a meeting that took place with an Airbus sales team last month, which Reuters reported on at the time, was part of a long-running dialogue.

“We wish really to have a fleet which is partly owned and partly leased, and if we are going to do a new aircraft order again, time is sort of running away, you can say,” Karlsen said.

Boeing and Airbus did not immediately respond to ch-aviation’s request for comment.

Norwegian posted a pretax profit of NOK117 million kroner (USD13 million) for the the fourth quarter of 2021, during which 3.1 million passengers flew with the carrier, bringing a load factor of 77%. At the end of the quarter its total operational fleet comprised of 51 aircraft.