OTC:NRSAF
Brian Lantier: So, I guess talk a little bit about that. What is the ROI like through your marketing efforts that are a little bit more unconventional versus some of the competitors?
Kristin Berthelsen: Yeah, so what we actually have seen after we actually turned off investing in traditional marketing, we increased the load factor. We are using Instagram is one, but one even more important is a younger audience, and that's TikTok. So, we see we have a lot of followers. We actually have more followers than most of the airlines on TikTok. And for me, it's some of the things it's hard to understand. I'm too old, but they are attracting the young travelers for the future. We have a lot of youngsters traveling with Norse.
Brian Lantier: Okay, that's fantastic. And talk a little bit about what led you to the decision to lease the aircraft to IndiGo and sort of where you see that going. Will that be the strategy for the next three to five years?
Kristin Berthelsen: Yeah, so first of all, I think it was based on the experience that we had been too optimistic regarding Oslo and Gatwick as very attractive places to fly from. And we also had been outcompeted by big airlines that could easily go lower on price just to take us out. It was very important for us to deliver profit to our investors. So, we had very passionate discussions about are we willing to give away six aircraft? Not to fly them ourselves. And that was hard emotionally, but we have been so strict that we should take no decision based on emotion. We need to take them based on the facts. We looked into the development of society, and we thought, okay, we might do a risk by losing some of the profit we could have had, but now we're securing six and being more optimistic on the six others. So, it has been very well. So, our investor has said that that was a wise choice, and we have gotten even more investors after we take that choice.
Brian Lantier: And do you think that the, I guess, have you released any details on the terms of that lease? Are there any ratchets in there? Are there any adjustments?
Kristin Berthelsen: We have said some about the flying hours a month, like 350 hours, so people can look into it, but it's a balance because it's also IndiGo matterless.
Brian Lantier: So, it matters for the industry privacy of that. Can you talk a little bit about what drives your decision to? You've obviously learned something when you've chosen different routes, and some of them didn't work out. Now that you've had success with the London to Cape Town route, what goes into your thinking now when you approach looking at new long-haul routes?
Kristin Berthelsen: So, what we have learned is to listen to the people who know it is not wise. Because that's what we did in the beginning. We listened to the experts, and we failed. So now we have looked into different numbers, we have worked in different ways, and we have also learned to fail quicker than we did in the beginning. So just by being this again, David versus Goliath, trying to do it, trying to find different ways. So, Cape Town is one example, but I also like to highlight this summer that New York-Rome, New York-Athens, really popular, and Athens-LA, really popular. So, by saying, okay, goodbye to Oslo and finding a better place, just following the numbers, meaning the possibility of earning money.
Brian Lantier: That's interesting. And what drives the decision? Like when I see the ad, why do I click on purchasing a ticket from Norse? Is it price alone?
Kristin Berthelsen: Yeah, so until now it has been price alone. And for us, it's in one way a challenge. Most of our passengers only fly with us twice because it's leisure or visiting family and friends. So, we're not attacking the business area as one example, but we see that we have a lot of returning customers. Like yesterday, I received an email from one. He said, I've been flying with you 32 times, Kristin. Please don't take away this route. It's urgent for me to make sure we create business.
So, we are in between because we also have these premium seats that are very attractive for business people. And yesterday I flew in from Paris, and there were guys sitting beside me. He was flying here for business, and he said, Norse is the best. Norse is the best because it takes me directly from Paris to New York at a good price. So, it is mostly price that is our selling point. But hopefully, after you have experienced Norse, you will say, I would love to come back.
Brian Lantier: And are the layouts of the Dreamliners the standard layouts, or do you retrofit them at all?
Kristin Berthelsen: It is the standard and we are discussing; we're having always having different business cases. Would we benefit from having business class seats? Because we have now a group of people who like when they go on holiday to travel even more comfortably than in our very good seats at Premium.
Brian Lantier: Yeah, great. Joey, I don't want to occupy the whole conversation. Are there any questions from the audience?
Audience Member: On the leases, typically, when do these leases end? I understand they're very favorable, but when do they expire?
Kristin Berthelsen: Most of them are for 10 more years. We have a long time to benefit from the leases. And we have a lot of people chasing our leases.
Brian Lantier: And hopefully at some point, y'all again we're not rooting for an economic downturn, but if there were one again, that's when you may be more opportunistic with expansion.
Kristin Berthelsen: And as I mentioned, our CEO is also a businessman doing other business, so he has access to money. But meaning being able to be there when the times are like this.
Brian Lantier: Great question.
Audience Member: What do you think about part-time gate rights at JFK?
Kristin Berthelsen: We actually have gates all year JFK, but we fly a lot in the summer, less in the winter. And one of our challenges has been that it's very costly for us to operate JFK because we pay a lot for the whole year. So, we're looking into that one as well.
Audience Member: What drove the decision to choose Boeing over Airbus?
Kristin Berthelsen: I think it was just the opportunity in the market at that time, and because our CEO and the one who did the deal at that time had a very good experience with flying Dreamliners in the past.
Brian Lantier: Thank you
Kristin Berthelsen: Okay, thank you so much.
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