Profits are soaring at Norwegian Air, with full flights on its new long-distance routes as well as its domestic and European routes leading to a 25 percent jump in operating revenues during the second quarter. That, in turn, led to a second quarter profit of NOK 116.9 million, up from a loss in the same quarter last year.
Despite a troubled start because of delays in delivery of its new Boeing 787 Dreamliners, Norwegian is enjoying high demand for seats on its new routes to Bangkok and New York, newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN) reported over the weekend. Fuel costs and fuel taxes will fall when the Dreamliners are finally put into service next month, and then Norwegian expects to see positive cash flow.
Norwegian’s second-quarter results impressed analysts and investors, and its share price jumped. It’s losing market share, though, at Oslo’s main airport at Gardermoen (OSL), with Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) seeing its number of passengers rise four times greater than Norwegian’s last year.
“Norwegian’s passenger counts rose by 136,000 last year, while SAS’ rose by 508,000,” OSL spokesman Joachim Westher Andersen told newspaper Aftenposten. He said Norwegian already had a “well-built route network with us already, and prioritized growing elsewhere.”
newsinenglish.no staff
