Norwegian, Bjørn Kjos | Millions in bonuses for Norwegian tops are all the rage



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The airline struggled with a deficit of one billion. However, several key employees and consultants received hefty bonuses in 2019.

It has long been a turbulent time for the airline, even long before the crown crisis hit the airline industry in March. For several years Norwegian has lost a lot of money, but now Dagens Næringsliv (subscription required) writes that millions were paid to people in high positions and hired consultants.

Also read: Analysts believe Norwegian will go even lower

This came in the middle of a critical phase for the company that was bleeding money, where the maximums and the hired consultants had to see how Norwegian could get out of the mud.

– This information provokes us a lot in the cabin association, says Rene-Charles Gustavsen, who is the leader of the Norwegian Cabin Association, to DN, and points out that at that time there were difficult economic times, and the management itself asked your employees to accept cuts.

Salary increases and bonuses

Dagens Næringsliv writes that before Kjos’ resignation, he had managed to give large salary balances and bonuses to four of the 13 people in the group’s leadership. This was in addition to the board at the time.

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The newspaper claims that former IT director Knut Erik Simonsen received a total of NOK 6.2 million in bonuses in 2019. In total, Simonsen received NOK 7.7 million, writes DN. He was not the only one to receive a hefty bonus last year, even though the company ran a large deficit in 2018. The then newly promoted Chief Commercial Officer Helga Bollman also received more than 6 million kronor in bonus, that is, the same amount than Simonsen.

It is also mentioned that CFO Geir Karlsen and former fleet manager Tore Jenssen received millions of bonuses.

I do not remember

In an email to Dagens Næringsliv, Kjos writes that he does not recall that bonuses were paid to the management team, but that the board issued some bonuses to retain important people after their own resignation. Norwegian itself claims that the salaries of the company’s executives have always been moderate and that this year not a single crown will be paid in bonuses to the management team, writes Dagens Næringsliv.



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