Norwegian Air Shuttle’s chief financial officer, Hans-Jørgen Wibstad, is leaving the airline to become finance chief of Multiconsult Rejlers. The carrier disclosed the move in a stock exchange notice, and Wibstad’s last day at Norwegian will be 31 October.
He will start his new job on 1 November, once a merger that is currently in progress has been completed. The move is a return of sorts. Wibstad was chief financial officer of Multiconsult from 2019 to 2022 before joining Norwegian, and earlier in his career he held the same role at Kongsberg Gruppen from 2012 to 2017. He has been Norwegian’s finance chief since 2022. His career has therefore moved between engineering consultancy, Kongsberg Gruppen and aviation, and he now returns to a company he knows well, this time as part of a larger merged group.
Wibstad pointed to that record as he announced his exit. “I am leaving Norwegian as a strong, well-positioned airline,” he said. He noted that the company has recently delivered solid financial results, paid its first dividend in its history and launched important strategic growth initiatives. Those three points were the core of his message to investors: that the finance function he hands over is in better shape than the one he took on, and that the departure is about a new opportunity rather than a problem at the airline.
Chief executive Geir Karlsen thanked Wibstad for his work since 2022. Karlsen said he had played an important role in the company’s development and that he had valued their close cooperation. Norwegian has moved quickly to fill the gap on a temporary basis. Gjermund Aasen, the airline’s director of Corporate Finance and Fleet, will serve as interim chief financial officer from the start of November, keeping the role inside the existing finance team while the recruitment runs.
The airline has also begun the search for a permanent successor, though it gave no timetable for an appointment. For Multiconsult Rejlers, the hire brings back a finance chief who already knows the business from his earlier spell there, at the point when the combined company is due to begin operating as one group. For Norwegian, the task is to keep the finance team steady during the handover while it pursues the growth plans Wibstad highlighted on his way out.
