Q A Bjørn Kjos’ leadership style is to always
“employ people better than yourself. That’s why we succeeded,” he says. He also “walks the talk” although that stops short of piloting any Norwegian aircraft, which he is perfectly able to do as a former fighter pilot, although this hasn’t stopped one of his daughters from becoming a pilot for the airline. The Innovation Norway event’s theme, on building a global business out of London, has much resonance with the airline as that’s exactly what Norwegian Air Shuttle has in its sights. “Gatwick is a key area in our expansion plans”, states Bjørn Kjos. The carrier currently has four aircraft based at Gatwick and 375 weekly flights to and from the 33 routes operating from the airport. Expansion from this base continues apace.
Its European network, utilising Airbus A320s and B737s, will add five new routes from Gatwick, namely Budapest, Cyprus, Sicily, Santorini and Corfu, this year. Overshadowing that is the news that
Norwegian is launching long-haul, aiming to fill the gap that Sir Freddie Laker occupied in the late 1970s with inexpensive transatlantic flights. Laker then had DC-10s to utilise but Norwegian will have the most fuel efficient aircraft in the marketplace. “We’ll have the Dreamliner,” says Bjørn Kjos. “Freddie didn’t have the tools to do it. It’s pure mathematics for us. You can’t do it with a 747 as it carries way too high operating costs.” The B787 claims to be 20 per cent more fuel efficient than the 767 it is to replace. If Norwegian’s gamble pays off – and he has
to be profitable on short-haul to be able to launch the long-haul – then the carrier’s Gatwick to New York, Fort Lauderdale and Los Angeles flights from this July will be full. Basic fares will be as low as £150 one way. Encouraged by the market share of low-cost carriers in Europe at 50 per cent, the thought of pitting Norwegian up against the might of legacy carriers British Airways and Virgin Atlantic doesn’t faze this sexagenarian. Norwegian’s already won a tough battle with
SAS domestically back in 2002 when SAS pulled the plug on its west coast Norway operation which it ran in co-operation with Braathens. SAS purchased Braathens and terminated Norwegian’s operation.
“ There are fi ve to six times more people in the Far East than Europe.
That’s a huge market and they will start travelling. Eight out of ten passengers in the future will come from Asia
” Bjørn didn't plan a career in commercial
aviation nor had he ever envisioned anything but a domestic operation for Norwegian Air Shuttle. But the battle with SAS forced a change of strategy. “Our intention was to be a small player,” he recalls. “We got into fierce competition from day one [with SAS] and had to fly with low enough costs and to do that we had to have volume to survive and save 130 employees, so that was the scalability we went for.” His biggest rivals today, as he sees it, are the
legacy carriers rather than say, the likes of easyJet, which has attracted an impressive share of the budget-conscious corporate buyer. Norwegian has had corporate-friendly services such as allocated seating for ten years and on some routes up to half the passengers can be business travellers. This straight talking CEO says Norwegian is 'better' than the legacy carriers, citing free onboard wifi as one example. His optimism that a long haul operation from
Gatwick will work is also based on future passenger growth predictions and demographics for Europe and specifically the UK's capital city. “London is the most interesting city in
Europe for an airline business because of what’s going to happen in the Far East,” he says, quoting the growth of new passengers into Europe as between 300-500 million within the next five years. “There are five to six times more people in
the Far East than Europe so you don’t have to be Einstein to work it out. That’s a huge market and they will start travelling. Eight out of ten passengers in future will come from Asia. Where will they fly? Into London, Paris, Rome and Barcelona. “I’m going for that big market, for the masses of people, on low-cost and on the newest aircraft. You can really go for it. But in the future you won’t see airlines with 40 aircraft. The critical mass is 100 aircraft and if you can’t do that don’t enter the market. “So how should we start to position
ourselves? If you want that business you need to build the infrastructure in London, and build new runways, otherwise they will go to Rome and Paris.” He believes that Europe could turn into a museum within 15 years as Asian economies surpass their European couterparts.
Norwegian’s plans are for crew bases in Bangkok and in China, among others, in order to
take advantage of cheaper costs – “we cannot compete with Norwegian salaries”, he explains. With a nod to Darwin, ultimately, Bjørn Kjos says, “it will not be the most intelligent that survive but those that are most adaptable to changes. It’s a new way of thinking. It’s an incredibly interesting future.”
five
minutes with...
...Bjørn Kjos
What is your most memorable business travel trip and why? Picking up Norwegian's first Boeing B787 Dreamliner in June
What is your worst business travel experience and why? I don't remember – I only focus on the positive
What is your favourite destination worldwide and why? New York. It's a global city with an amazing atmosphere
What three items do you never leave home without when travelling on business? My iPhone, passport and credit card
What single thing could be done to improve your business travelling life? Faster immigration
What destination/s would you like to visit next and why? San Francisco to launch our new service
THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE 31
THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE 31
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