Download or read book Alternative Long-haul Airline Business Models written by and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The market for transatlantic aviation is highly competitive and also one of the most profitable civil aviation markets today. Repeatedly there have been attempts to start a long-haul low cost business on transatlantic routes, but none of them has prevailed for more than a few years. In 2013, the European Low Cost Carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle has started to fly from Europe to the United States and has announced plans to expand routes to multiple destinations across the Atlantic. As an airline with close to 20 million annual passengers before the introduction of the service, Norwegian differs from past "start-up" airlines in many aspects of the business model and its long-haul low cost operation has not yet been examined in previous research. For this purpose the thesis at hand creates a new long-haul low cost business model and investigates the long-haul business model set-up of Norwegian Air Shuttle, using a qualitative content analysis. The assessment of seven expert interviews including known academics from the field of aviation and directly involved professionals serves to evaluate the risks and opportunities of Norwegian's long-haul venture as well as the need of continuous business model innovation for sustainable operation and how the airline may be able to achieve it. To validate the results of the qualitative analysis a fare comparison relates Norwegian's price levels to those of direct competitors, revealing mixed potential to apply pressure to the market. The results of the qualitative analysis show that Norwegian is likely able to create business model innovation through an unprecedented diversification strategy, as it plans to enter the airplane leasing business. Further, a historically high airplane order puts the airline in need of continuous growth, adding another challenge to a complex profile of risks and opportunities in the airline's long-haul operation.