Passenger numbers soar above 640,000 at budget airline Norwegian
Passenger numbers at Norwegian took off last month topping 640,000, the highest level since the pandemic struck in March 2020.
Norwegian carried 643,089 passengers in February, a ten-fold increase compared with February 2021 when just 61,374 travellers took flight. The airline, which was founded in 1993 and has grown to become one of Europe’s four largest budget airlines, said passenger numbers were boosted by a strong appetite for vacations following the lifting of lockdown restrictions in Norway and elsewhere across the continent.
“February is traditionally a month with lower travel demand, however, figures have remained comparable to the month of January,” commented Norwegian’s chief executive Geir Karlsen.
“We are particularly pleased that our aircraft have had a load factor of over 81 percent. When travel restrictions were lifted, we immediately noticed increased demand for flights. We will have a comprehensive summer program this year to meet this demand,” Karlsen added.
The company’s Summer program has planned 280 routes and 38 destinations with Norwegian planning to have 70 aircraft in operation. A sizeable increase compared to February when just 44 aircraft were in operation.
Last month, Norwegian operated flights at close to full capacity. Some 99.8 per cent of scheduled flights were operated while passengers flew 885m seat kilometers out of a total capacity of 1,089m seat kilometers.
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