Norwegian Air Shuttle: at a critical turning point

Norwegian Air Shuttle's 2012 results confirmed its position as the Nordic region's most consistently profitable airline and the one with the lowest unit costs. This year represents a critical turning point for Norwegian. In 2013, it will establish its first base in a major capital city outside Scandinavia (at London Gatwick) and set up a base in the highly competitive mainland Spanish market. Moreover, it will also launch long-haul routes to New York and Bangkok. Only time will tell if 2013 proves to be the point where Norwegian turned up or turned down. This may depend on what the future holds for regional competitors SAS and Finnair.

On long-haul, it will encounter efficient competitors from much lower wage economies and well established strongly branded operators from Europe, while on short-haul it will meet embedded lower cost competitors that will not have the distraction of start-up long-haul operations. Looking further ahead, it will need more bases around Europe in order to achieve the double-digit growth rates demanded by its ambitious fleet expansion over the next decade or so. It may also need to consider recapitalising its somewhat slight balance sheet.