Norwegian Air Shuttle has signed an agreement for the sale of 100% of its Argentinian subsidiary Norwegian Air Argentina (NAA) to JetSMART Airlines. “We’re taking necessary steps to return to profitability,” said acting CEO Geir Karlsen.
JetSMART will assume the NAA operation with immediate effect. To minimize the impact on passengers, JetSMART will continue to operate the NAA scheduled flights from Aeroparque airport. The parties expect that the integration process will take several months, and the Norwegian brand will be phased out in the domestic Argentinian network during this period.
Over the next six months, the three Boeing 737s currently operated by NAA will be replaced by JetSMART’s Airbus A320 aircraft. The three Boeing 737s will return to service for Norwegian in Europe.
JetSMART has been created by Indigo Partners, a private investment fund with over 15 years of experience developing successful ultra low-cost airlines worldwide. It currently has investments in Wizz Air (Eastern Europe), Volaris (Mexico) and Frontier Airlines (United States). JetSMART commenced scheduled operations in July 2017.
