Industry Irish Court approves Norwegian´s reconstruction process

Norwegian has announced, that the Irish High Court has officially approved the airline´s reconstruction plans in the country. Following this approval, the carrier will send the same proposal for voting in Norway.

After the already battered airline experienced heavy financial difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic, a new reconstruction plan was developed to find a way out of the financial crisis. Norwegian is now awaiting a final resolution by the end of May and hopes to start the process of raising capital again.

Main goal of the reconstruction plan is it, to strengthen the company financially and to right size the fleet. This allows the airline to adapt to future demands. The so-called “Examiner process” in Ireland is a reconstruction involving several of the company´s Irish subsidiaries.

Jacob Schram, CEO of Norwegian, commented on the news: “We are very happy to learn that the Irish High Court has approved the reconstruction plan. We can now go forward with the reconstruction in Norway and initiate a capital raise.”

“This is a demanding and ongoing process; however, the result of the court rulings today enforces our beliefs of a positive final outcome. We are looking forward to and are preparing fora post-pandemic world, without travel restrictions and open borders,” Schram added.

Over the past month, the company´s creditors had several meetings that led to the verdict from the Irish High Court. During the next two weeks, Norwegian will now have to survive a similar voting process in its original country.

The carrier concluded: “The decision from the Irish High Court will be legally binding following an appeal period of one month and the company will technically still be in the Examinership until the process of capital raise is finalized. Given that the court proceedings continue as planned, Norwegian’s goal is to finalize the capital raise by the end of May 2021.“

At the end of April last year, Norwegian announced that subsidiaries had to file for bankruptcy. Over 1500 pilots and over 3000 cabin crew members were affected. In November last year, the carrier announced that it had to furlough additional 1600 employees to save costs.

In April, the airline said that it would ground its fleet until 2021. Mayor parts of the fleet still remain grounded. In November of last year, the low-cost carrier then announced its reconstruction plan and this latest approval by the Irish court is an important step for the airline.