Norwegian creditors may challenge airline’s bid to end leases

Norwegian Air Shuttle (NAS) creditors could challenge the troubled airline's efforts to hand back more than 30 aircraft.

NAS and four Irish subsidiaries are under High Court protection from creditors while examiner, Kieran Wallace of KPMG, works on a rescue plan for the Scandinavian carrier.

The five companies have asked the court to allow it repudiate leases over 36 aircraft, allowing it to hand them back to lessors that have supplied the planes, so it can cut its it fleet as part of a plan to keep NAS in business.

Lawyers for several lessors complained on Thursday that they had not enough time to deal with concerns raised by the companies’ applications to the court, including the fact that some agreements were governed by English law.

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Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) leasing, which has supplied 10 aircraft to Norwegian, argued that the companies’ applications lacked information and analysis to allow the court assess how the leases were onerous.

Mr Justice Michael Quinn proposed allowing until Friday February 12th for creditors to reply to the companies' applications, while he indicated that the court would deal with the applications themselves the following week.

However, he said that he would deal with any uncontested applications later on Thursday.