LONDON – Since a busy post-covid summer season with great figures, Low-Cost Carrier Norwegian (DY/D8) continues to see great numbers in the busy travel season, despite inflation and other financial costs for travelers.
Business travelers are also returning, their report states.
Continued great results
Low-Cost Carrier Norwegian reported great results on October 26 for Q3 of 2022. Their figures demonstrate the carriers’ ability to deliver robust financial results with strong operations in the year’s busiest season for travel.
Since the summer, Norwegian has seen an increase in business travel, with the passenger segment being back at 2019 levels on the domestic route network within Norway.
Norwegian’s operating profit in Q3 amounted to NOK 1,032 million, which was impacted positively by record high unit revenue for Norwegian, though also negatively by increased fuel prices and strong USD for the season.
Norwegian’s customers showed to long for the carrier’s holiday destinations, creating strong demand for the peak of the summer season, delivering great results for Q2 2022.
In Q3 of 2022, Norwegian saw over 6 million passengers despite congestion and challenges in the industry for airports across the EU. However, almost all scheduled flights were operated.
Across Q3, 6.1 million passengers total, heavily lifted up from 2.5 million in the same quarter of 2021. Load factor also saw an increase to 88.8 percent compared to 73.1 percent in the same period last year and 81.2 percent for the previous quarter.
Leadership statements
Norwegian Chief Executive Officer Geir Karlsen commented, saying:- “This quarter has demonstrated that we are the reliable Nordic option for customers traveling on their holidays, to visit friends and family, or for business purposes.”
“Many corporate customers choose to fly with Norwegian, and the number of business travelers is now on par with pre-pandemic levels for our most popular domestic business routes.”
“Demand is expected to soften as we enter the winter trading period, but Norwegian is well prepared for this through flexible fleet arrangements, rigorous route planning, and sound collaboration with our colleagues and unions,”
New agreement for greater connections
As Norwegian recently publicly announced, they have initiated cooperation with airline Widerøe (WF), which serves a majority of the remote airports in which a Boeing 737-800 won’t be able to fit.
The new agreement will spark new possibilities in connectivity to the smaller cities, especially up north, where the “milk-route service” and aircraft are a must-have to be able to get to places.
In the press release issued by Norwegian themselves, it’s written about the new agreement: “The co-operation agreement between Norwegian and Widerøe was finalized in September and will provide corporate and leisure travelers with additional choice and flexibility.”
“Under this agreement, the two companies will co-operate on key strategic initiatives, including ticket sales, enabling passengers to travel seamlessly across the entire route network of both airlines.”
Well prepared for the winter season
As the aviation and airline industry is closing in on the winter season, CEO Geir Karlsen expresses that they are ready for the season, saying:-
“While demand for air travel may be impacted by the current macro-economic and geopolitical uncertainty, booking trends remain encouraging with an increasing number of passengers choosing to fly with Norwegian.”
Throughout the 2022/2023 winter season, Norwegian will utilize their flexible leasing agreements with an approximate 25 percent capacity reduction.
Overall
Since the two last horrible years for airlines and the aviation industry, Norwegian seems to be recovering greatly, at least their passenger and load factor numbers do.
With a travel bonanza this summer, as borders opened, Norwegian saw massive passenger numbers and full flights, something that definitely gave the carrier a small boost back into the “normal days” of air travel, and it’s obvious these results continue growing with strong numbers.
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