Norwegian has blamed the newly-introduced air passenger tax in Norway for a drop in profits.
The airline’s pre-tax result for the second quarter of 2017 was £80.5 million – slightly down on £83 million for the same period in 2016.
The airline said the APD implemented by the Norwegian government and rising oil prices resulted in the fall.
During the second quarter, the airline carried 8.6 million passengers, an increase of 12 per cent. Norwegian’s strongest growth in terms of passenger numbers was Oslo airport and Gatwick. During this quarter, it has started up transatlantic flights with single-aisle aircraft, launched a new pilot base in Rome and announced its first ever route to South America (London Gatwick to Buenos Aires).
During the second quarter, Norwegian’s total revenue was 7.8 billion, up 17 per cent from the same quarter last year. The sale of 2.5 per cent of Bank Norwegian shares contributed positively to the result. Norwegian's net profit this quarter ended at 1.1 billion NOK. Norwegian’s liquidity has increased from three billion NOK last year to just under six billion NOK this year. Both Norwegian’s production growth (ASK) and traffic growth (RPK) for this quarter was 19 per cent. Norwegian’s growth is estimated to be 25 per cent for the whole year.
Norwegian’s CEO Bjørn Kjos said: “I am very pleased with the high load factor for this quarter. I’m also grateful that more than 200 million passengers have shown confidence in us and chosen to fly with Norwegian since we began flying in 2002,”
“However, we have had significant additional costs for leasing of aircraft, high oil price and the air passenger tax implemented by the government in Norway last year, which have had a negative impact on the result. Bookings and pre-sales for the coming months are looking very good and it has also been a great pleasure to receive fantastic feedback from our customers in the form of two SkyTrax awards. This would never be possible without all the dedicated people working at Norwegian.”