Norwegian Air’s global expansion draws fire from a jilted rival

Norwegian Air “is not long for this world,” says Michael O’Leary, the CE of Ryanair, itself in turmoil thanks to a pilot-staffing pinch that’s killed travel plans for hundreds of thousands of customers. “That’s just nonsense,” says Norwegian CEO Bjorn Kjos. Norwegian is under investor scrutiny given its large order of more than 200 aircraft, split roughly between Airbus and Boeing, to support a global growth spurt. Industry observers caution that even with low fuel and labor costs, a glut of competitive capacity and cheap fares may well injure Norwegian’s long-term financial health as it digests all the new planes. Especially if economies on either side of the Atlantic hit a rough patch. So, despite only a modest overlap of routes and facing their own unique challenges, these two CEOs are now engaged in a very public spat. The bad blood comes just as Ryanair and Norwegian ended talks on a deal to transfer passengers on connecting flights, and as Norwegian began recruiting pilots from Ryanair. Norwegian instead announced a deal with easyJet Plc to transfer passengers at London’s Gatwick Airport. <br/>