Norwegian recently filed for bankruptcy for its Swedish airline to avoid paying the flight fee debt to the Swedish Transport Agency – but is already in full swing with new Swedish routes. However, the company is dodging the question of why it does not want to pay the debt.
Last week, Norwegian Air Sweden AB, the Swedish subsidiary of the airline group Norwegian, filed for bankruptcy at the Stockholm District Court. The company, according to the bankruptcy application signed by Chairman of the Board Johan Gauermann, was insolvent and its payment difficulties were not temporary.
The bankruptcy administrator, 71-year-old lawyer Thomas Ehrner from the law firm Fylgia, is now working on an inventory of the estate that will show how big the debts are and who the creditors are. He told Di on Friday that one of the larger creditors is the Swedish Transport Agency, the authority that issues flight licenses and charges various fees from airlines.
On Monday, the authority announced that its claim on the Norwegian company is 6.1 million kronor and refers to "permit fees (annual fees), fees to the aircraft registry and passenger fees (GAS)."”
The amount is two per thousand of the 3 billion Norwegian kroner that the airline received just a few weeks ago. announced that was raised through bond and share issues.
At Swedish Norwegian, Charlotte Holmbergh Jacobsson is the communications manager.
SEK 6 million sounds like a fairly small amount in the Norwegian context, and if the Swedish Transport Agency was one of the largest creditors: then why don't you pay the amount? Is it controversial?
”"The company also has debts to other companies such as Boeing and Lufthansa Technic. However, we are not able to comment on this further," she writes in an email to Di on Monday evening, stating that Norwegian has a good dialogue with the Swedish Transport Agency.
Norwegian stated on Monday morning – just six days after the bankruptcy filing was signed – that flights in Sweden will resume as of Monday, May 31. During the spring and summer, the Swedish operations will be expanded to 33 destinations.
However, Charlotte Holmbergh Jacobsson does not go into how large the new fees to the creditor, the Swedish Transport Agency, will be for Norwegian to be able to operate these routes.
”"The entire Norwegian has been subject to reconstruction where the business focus has changed from intercontinental long-haul and short-haul to now focus on the Nordics and Europe with short-haul routes," she wrote instead, mentioning that the "new Norwegian" has a simplified and more efficient corporate structure and operations.
”We are now formally out of the reconstruction process and can therefore focus on the aviation business,” she concludes.
Source: di.se
