- Norwegian Air / Press
Bjorn Kjos, the CEO and founder of Norwegian Air, the 6th largest low-cost carrier in the world, aims to expand heavily to emerging Asian cities in the future.
Kjos made this clear in a press meeting in Stockholm, while emphasizing the outsize importance of the Swedish capital as its key long-haul hub.
“Asian tourists today don’t fly through Arlanda, they go instead to London."
The company currently offers 50 intercontinental flight routes, of which 42 to the United States. Kjos said that in the future, destinations will increasingly include South Asian cities like Karachi, Delhi, Lahore and Calcutta — with cheap ticket prices.
“There is no legacy carrier that will be able to offer flights as cheap as us to these regions — that’s something I’m absolutely certain of. If they could have done it, they would be doing it already.”
An inflow of Asian tourists visiting Stockholm or doing stopovers en route to the US would, according to Kjos, create substantial employment and tourism revenues for Sweden.
Norwegian wants to make Stockholm a key global long-haul hub
Kjos named three critical factors for its global expansion plans: a proposed Swedish aviation tax, the company's inability to use the Siberian airway passage, and pre clearance in Sweden for US-bound flights.
“We are going to invest a lot in Sweden, as long as the political matters are taken care of,” Kjos said, referring most of all to the Swedish government's controversial aviation tax proposal, which would cost Norwegian SEK 400 million ($45m) per year.
In addition to having to close down domestic routes in Sweden, Kjos believes the tax would put too big of a burden on other low-cost carriers and the airports catering them.
"Personally I don't think Skavsta can survive. Just like Rygge was shut down in Norway [due to environmental taxes]."
Kjos also adds that the environmental benefits of the Swedish aviation tax would be eliminated, if Swedish travellers would have to drive or fly to other North European hubs in order to do intercontinental travel.
“All we can do on these matters is to explain to the politicians what they are missing out on. [..] If you want to introduce [the tax], and at the same time increase the total emissions, then be my guest," Kjos said with apparent sarcasm, adding that the company's Scandinavian hub would have to be in Copenhagen or Oslo instead.
Another pressing matter for Norwegian is the Siberian airway passage, which it currently cannot fly over, making routes towards China and Japan difficult. Kjos' agenda in Stockholm today will include a meeting with Swedish Minister for Enterprise Mikael Damberg, to discuss the Siberian passage.
Eearlier this year, Norwegian overtook SAS as the biggest airline in terms of passengers. The company has expanded its offering in North America, and will start offering low-cost transatlantic flights, starting from $69, with the mid-sized Boeing 737-MAX8 aircraft.
Norwegians current order of 250 new aircrafts - to cater to expansion - is the biggest in European airline history.