LONDON – Norwegian Air has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with Air Lease Corporation (ALC) to lease six Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft.
The six aircraft will be additional to the three 737 MAX 8 aircraft which Norwegian has previously agreed to lease from ALC. One aircraft from this previous order has already been delivered to Norwegian.
The six new aircraft are to be delivered in short time to Norwegian, and I scheduled to arrive ahead of the upcoming summer 2023 season.
“The addition of these modern and fuel-efficient aircraft fits well with our fleet strategy,” said Geir Karlsen, CEO of Norwegian.
“It will also help counteract delays from Boeing for other aircraft that were due to be delivered to Norwegian this spring.”
The Boeing 737 MAX 8 is approximately 14 percent more fuel-efficient compared to previous-generation aircraft.
The move to the new generation aircraft will help to meet Norwegian’s ambitious target to reduce its carbon emissions by 45 percent by 2030.
A strong start for 2023
As well as the announcement of the deal for six new fleet aircraft, the Norwegian carrier has enjoyed a good start to the New Year.
Norwegian headed into 2023 with a strong sales campaign, 1.1 million passengers and a load factor of 78 percent in what is historically the quietest travel month of the year.
In January, Norwegian had 1.1 million passengers, an increase of 78 percent from this month last year.
“People traditionally travel less in January, instead using this time of year to book their next travels. Nevertheless, we had close to full flights to warmer destinations this month.”
“Our New Year’s sales campaign resulted in more than one million sold seats, a satisfying start to this year’s ticket sales.”
“We see that the positive booking trend continues also after this sale. Many of our passengers are currently planning their travels for this year’s school breaks and long weekends in May”, said Geir Karlsen, CEO.
This year’s summer program comprises 300 routes to 114 destinations, including several new destinations. With an expanded route network and new aircraft, Norwegian continues to recruit new colleagues.
“The past week has been very particular for the Nordic aviation sector, marked by Flyr’s bankruptcy. I strongly sympathise with the employees, customers and others affected by the situation.”
“We would like to make sure stranded passengers reach their destinations, provided we have free seats available. We also invite employees that have been affected by the bankruptcy to apply to job vacancies at Norwegian”, said Karlsen.
Norwegian had 1,131,474 passengers in January, up 78 percent from January 2022. The load factor in January was 78 percent. The capacity (ASK) was 1,870 million seat kilometres, while actual passenger traffic (RPK) was 1,453 million seat kilometres.
In January, Norwegian operated an average of 62 aircraft and 99.5 percent of the scheduled flights were completed.
Punctuality, as measured by the number of flights departing within 15 minutes of scheduled time, was at 85.0 percent in January.
