The ongoing corona crisis is putting the entire airline industry at risk. Across Europe, airline staff in cooperation with airline management, are doing their utmost to cut costs in order so save jobs and maintain vital infrastructure. Although Norwegian Air Shuttle was expected to deliver a positive result in 2020, the corona crisis is now threatening the very existence of the company aswell as other airlines. Painful decisions are being made and jobs are being lost. But those measures will not be enough.
Turmoil in the capital markets makes it impossible to finance businesses in a normal fashion. Subsequently, powerful and extraordinary measures are now required from governments across Europe to handle this unprecedented situation. NPU therefor urges governments across Europe to use available regulation to secure liquidity for struggling airlines during this period. We also urge the EU to take necessary action in order to secure European airlines and to safeguard jobs and vital infrastructure. The future of the European airline industry is at stake.
For further comments, contact npu@norwegianpilot.no
Norwegian Pilot Union (NPU) is the recognized union for Norwegian Short Haul pilots in Scandinavia. NPU is a member of Parat (Norway and Sweden) and FPU (Denmark), two working federations offering legal counselling and support for our members and the NPU board. NPU is also founding member of Norwegian Pilot Group, NPG, a group of Pilot Unions representing Norwegian Pilots within the Norwegian Group and Pilot Association Norway (PAN), a newly established group of pilot unions within Parat organizing over 1000 pilots in Norway. Parat and FPU are members of ETF/ITF and FPU is a member of ECA and IFALPA.