In mid-April IAG (the parent company of British Airways) acquired a 4.61% ownership stake in Norwegian. This seemed to come out of left field, as there weren’t really rumors of this leading up to the announcement. IAG also expressed interest in the possibility of a full takeover of Norwegian. Long term this move isn't surprising…
Continue reading: Lufthansa Interested In Norwegian Takeover As Well
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Absolutely NOT Lufthansa. Their agenda is pretty clear: European ,if not world ,domination. The thought is creepy and their plan should be resisted.
Lufthansa can have them. I've said earlier it would make sense for IAG to buy them, merge them with both Level and Vueling, and recentre all their low-cost operations in LGW and STN. Then they could keep all the "premium" (if you can say that about BA anymore) out of LHR. But in truth, it does harm the consumer of more traffic goes IAG's way. They already have all the slots at LHR, nobody wants them take over the majority of LGW's.
Lufthansa makes sense, they have little to no footprint departing the UK to non-German destinations. Plus, long-haul low cost. They might need to raise the prices slightly to make sure they're profitable though...
Lufthansa has rather sinister ambitions...and very plain lounges. Obstentacious they are not.
I was rather surprised to read this. LH has repeatedly said that they have no interest in having Eurowings hubs in other parts of Europe outside of Germany, Switzerland, Austria & Belgium. Rome is a different story were they to take over tired Alitalia. I honestly fail to see how Norwegian fits into their Eurowings concept.
Remember LH had a huge stake in UK's now collapsed BMI which they ended up selling to BA. They also sold their 19% stake in JetBlue - but that was a time when they were making losses.
Since then they've been concetrating on their core home markets. Interest in Norwegian may mean that that long rumoured intent to buy SAS isn't going through.
Norwegian is the only EU airline that is legit ...
Be it Lufthansa or IAG.... ITS NOT FOR SALE!!!!
And then there is Brexit. Whether Norwegian would technically a UK airline or a German one, or based somewhere else would add another whole layer of complexity.
Although prices have corm down, I blame the existence of Norwegian for basic economy transatlantic fares, where the same fare previously bought me at least 1 checkin luggage, I have to pay more today for the nonsense that Norwegian has created.
I suspect this is Lufthansa just trying to drive up the price and make the acquisition a lot more expensive/painful for IAG.
As another commenter pointed out, Lufthansa has said for years they don’t want to expand Eurowings to build hubs outside their existing central/Northern European strongholds. Buying an unprofitable LCC in the U.K. after their previous experiences of losing. Tons of money on a UK regional airline makes very little sense. Also note the fleet commonality issues why would Lufthansa group want to inherit a large collection of 737s and 787s which they don’t operate in any of their other divisions?
Norwegian will surely go to IAG or fold, I can’t imagine it makes sense for Lufthansa group to pay up for them.
How long till Air France/KLM put a bid in even if they don't have true intention to purchase? I would think AF/KLM have the most to gain from the acquisition as their ambition has been limited for the past several years.
I wonder if they mean the whole Norwegian group (UK, Argentina etc) or just the UK division?
I think it makes more sense for IAG to inherit it and replcae LEVEL with Norwegian since they have so much more market appeal and brand recognition.
It would make no sense for anybody to purchase Norweigian and not use the brand. The whole value is their name which makes me think Lufthansa has no interest in the slightest since it has no trouble with Eurowings brand.
However LEVEL is just a strange entity within the IAG group.
This also makes me think Air France/KLM would want to big to replace JOON as Norwegian staff are likely paid less than their mainline crew which was the whole point of JOON.
It will be interesting how this develops but perhaps even a joint bid between IAG and another could be on the table.
As Norwegian would only need a finacial backer like how Virgin isn't owned outright but big shares are by companies that have the big bucks.