Norwegian Air, growing fast, is recruiting more pilots at its Dublin base; rival carrier Ryanair is up to its neck in strikes and is being forced to cancel flights right, left and centre; while British Airways’ parent company wants to take over Norwegian and is jockeying to do so.
Welcome to the European airline arena, always busy, especially when it comes to cut-price carriers!
Norwegian, one of the world’s fastest-growing low-cost airlines, is seeking to recruit 40 pilots for its Dublin base to support its transatlantic expansion plans.
Norwegian wants to double the size of its Irish base and needs extra B737 pilots for short-haul European flights from Dublin to Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Helsinki.
The whole world seems to be short of pilots.
From next March, Norwegian is scheduling up to 40 extra weekly transatlantic departures to the US and Canada.
Dublin-based competitor Ryanair, meanwhile, is locked in a protracted war with unions. Last Friday, Ryanair cancelled 146 flights over continuing pilot strikes. The cancellations affected Belgium, Sweden and Ireland, affecting 25,000 passengers.
The airline has been hit by four Irish pilot strikes in recent weeks, along with a 48-hour cabin crew strike. Unions in Germany and the Netherlands may also join the strikes.
Norwegian Air chief executive Bjorn Kjos
A Ryanair spokesman said that the union FORSA (the largest public service union in Ireland) had “called a fifth strike by a small minority (25%) of our Irish pilots”, forcing the airline to “regrettably cancel just 20 (7%) of our 300 planned flights to/from Ireland next Friday (10 August).
“All 3500 affected customers have already been notified by email/SMS and will be readily re-accommodated (or refunded) on other Ryanair flights between IRE-UK routes.”
Amid all that, Willie Walsh, the chief of IAG (the parent of British Airways, Iberia and Vueling) is reportedly putting pressure on Norwegian to open up to a takeover bid within a year or IAG may sell its 4.65% stake in Norwegian.
Never a dull moment!
Ryanair B737-800
Written by Peter Needham
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