Norwegian Air Shuttle said it would “send the bill” to Boeing after it was forced to ground its fleet of 18 737 MAX 8.
Lasse Sandaker-Nielsen, a spokesperson for the low cost carrier told e24.no that it would claim compensation from the plane manufacturer. “We will send the full bill to Boeing,” said Sandaker-Nielsen, adding “Norwegian should not be penalized economically because a totally new plane cannot fly”. It is the first affected company to publicly consider compensation.
Due to the grounding ordered by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), Norwegian had to cancel 19 flights on March 13, 2019. On this first day, Norwegian said it found alternate departures for most of its passengers. “Several thousand were flying with the aircraft type, so we have found solutions for most people. We are pleased with that”.
Norwegian was the launch customer of the Boeing 737 MAX in Europe, with 108 aircraft of this type on order and an option for 92 more.
On December 14, 2018, one of its Boeing 737 MAX aircraft got ‘stuck’ in Iran. En route from Dubai (the U.A.E.) to Oslo (Norway) it had to perform and unscheduled landing in the city of Shiraz due to engine problems. It remained there for two months.
After accumulating two years of financial losses, the carrier raised 3 billion Norwegian crowns ($348 million) from shareholders in January 2019.
After seeing its Boeing Dreamliners affected by engines problems last year, Norwegian also managed to reach an agreement with Rolls Royce in late December 2018. The engine manufacturer should compensate the LCC with €100 million for the technical challenges it faced.