NORWEGIAN AIRLINE IS ON THE BRINK OF BANKRUPTCY

Norwegian Air Shuttle, one of the largest low-cost carriers in Europe, has announced the possibility of bankruptcy in the nearest future. The company's chief executive, Jakob Schram, on Monday criticized the actions of the Norwegian government, which refused to financially support the airline in a difficult situation.

Earlier, Iselin Nibe, the Minister of Trade and Industry of Norway, called the financial support of the airline a waste of taxpayers' funds. Schram compared such a response to a slap in the face in conditions when many air carriers in various countries of the world are actively subsidized by the executive branch.

The company already received 3 billion norwegian kroner (25.3 billion rubles) in government guarantees in early 2020.

Having spent more than 0.5 billion kroner per month in the third quarter, the carrier has no more than 3.4 billion in cash left. According to the calculations of specialists, if the air traffic is not fully restored or the company fails to attract additional capital, there will be no money in six months. In addition, Oslo felt that financial injections from the country's budget would hinder competition, which is too risky in the context of the ongoing pandemic.

The airline faced difficulties even before the pandemic. After the governments of many countries had announced a lockdown, the company was forced to completely suspend flights, sending 80% of workers on unpaid leave.

The company ended the first half of the year with a loss of $ 541 million.

The third quarter also ended with a loss of $ 109 million. A million passengers carried during this period represented only 9% of the traffic recorded in 2019. Only 25 short-haul aircraft were used out of 140 airliners the company had.

Meanwhile, the airline which had more than 10,000 employees before the pandemic announced on Monday that it will lay off 1,600 more employees, bringing its active workforce to 600 workers.

In the nearest future, it is planned to use only six aircraft.

Among the possible scenarios for the further development of events around the air carrier, experts name the possible sale of aircraft, as well as the injection of capital provided by leasing companies that received Norwegian assets in the course of the restructuring that the company carried out this year.