3 Links I Love: Norwegian Air International Gets Approved, United Settles Its Board Fight, A Play About a Crash

Apr 22, 2016

More Reading on This Topic: Links I Love, Norwegian, United

Approving Norwegian Air International will create thousands of new U.S. jobs – The Hill
Norwegian’s CEO Bjørn Kjos had a op-ed talking about just how great it is that after several years, Norwegian Air International has finally been approved. Bjorn gives a long list of why all the bad things opponents to NAI’s approval are wrong. But he never actually says why Norwegian needs NAI instead of operating the way it does today.

Links I Love

CNBC Exclusive: CNBC Transcript: United Airlines President & CEO Oscar Munoz Speaks with CNBC’s Jim Cramer on “Squawk on the Street” Today – CNBC
The board fight at United has been resolved, and Gordon Bethune is not part of the solution. Instead, former Air Canada CEO Robert Milton will be chair for a couple years until Oscar takes over. This was a good resolution to this whole situation. Now Oscar can do his job with more certainty. In this interview, he talks about this and more.

‘United Flight 232’ reminds us that sometimes life is up in the air – Chicago Tribune
I keep hearing that this play is a must-see. But it’s about a plane crash (one with miraculous survivors, but still a plane crash). I just can’t seem to wrap my head around this one. Anyone seen it?

Brett

8 responses to “3 Links I Love: Norwegian Air International Gets Approved, United Settles Its Board Fight, A Play About a Crash”

Jeremy

Apr 22, 2016 at 6:17 am

Flight 232 the book is stupid intense. It terrified me in ways that no Stephen King book ever did.
There is a part where the flight attendant is talking about having to tell passengers to put their babies on the floor of the plane, and you know the plane is going to crash. Its heart wrenching.
The book is a fantastic read, I highly recommend it.

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1. SEAN
  
  Apr 22, 2016 at 7:01 am
  
  So when is United 232 the movie coming out?
  
  Reply
  1. Jim M
    
    Apr 22, 2016 at 10:20 am
    
    If you can watch the series that Errol Morris did called First Person. It is brutally sad, but incredibly interesting what Denny Fitch did that day, and the grief he carried.
    
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2. Kilroy
  
  Apr 25, 2016 at 6:17 am
  
  Brett’s post prompted me to pull this book off the shelf and read it for the 2nd or 3rd time. There aren’t many books that I read the whole way through without stopping, staying up 7 hours past my bedtime to do so, especially when I have read them before. That is what happened with Flight 232 by Laurence Gonzales. Definitely one of the best disaster/survival books out there.
  
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Joey Jaidee

Apr 22, 2016 at 6:23 am

Its funny UAL can add a bunch of people to the board, all of whom will be paid handsomely and WILL have pensions, but they cannot/will not crew planes properly!!!

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Oliver

Apr 22, 2016 at 7:57 am

The transcript is painful to read because of the all caps.

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Eric

Apr 22, 2016 at 10:19 am

Great links….I have a few thoughts…all of them cynical.
The NAI narrative is some masterful corporate communication. Yes..NAI uses US crew (for now). I said uses, not employs, because they actually work for a 3rd party vendor that is wholly owned by Norwegian. This model has been used industry wide ‘below and above the wing’ and in heavy mx for over a decade and now they are bringing it onto the aircraft. Ask yourself how your last interaction with a DGS or Menzies employee went during irrops or filing a lost bag claim. Nuff’ said.
Ask those DGS or Menzies employees about their QOL at work and be prepared to hear stories that sound like a Dickensonian work house. I know that airlines are not charites and have a fiduciary responsibility to investors to maximize efficiencies and returns. However, i believe flight ops is a sacred cow that should not be part of an actuarial equation.
My second thought is that while NAI is not deploying a flag of convenience model is the literal sense it’s pretty darn close. IF….biiiiig I F…this is successful it could be a template for a true flag of convenience model down the road. See the US,Canadian,EU and UK shipping industries for more information on that outcome.
Finally there is the UAL boardroom brawl and it’s resolution. Two analysts on this week’s earnings call implied it was time for UA to divest assets and consider ‘shrinking into profitability’ (because that worked so well for Eastern, Braniff,TWA,PanAm,Kodak, Kmart,Hardees,etc). Then they vote ACE/Air Canada alum Robert Milton into the Chairmanship.
Hmmmmmmmm.

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Pierre Cohen

Apr 22, 2016 at 3:33 pm

I had a chance to see this play/movie at sundance a couple of years ago where they recreated some of the more serious crashes using actual tower conversations and black box recordings.. Was well acted and a little eerie.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Victor_Romeo

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