Budget airline Norwegian has been boosted by the “pick up” in corporate travellers in recent months.
The carrier, which now concentrates on short-haul European flights after ditching its transatlantic operations following restructuring, said that business traffic on its main domestic routes in Norway had returned to 2019 levels.
Geir Karlsen, CEO of Norwegian, added: “Many corporate customers choose to fly with Norwegian, and the number of business travellers 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.”
Norwegian said it made an operating profit of €100 million in the third quarter of 2022, despite being affected by high fuel prices and the strong US dollar.
Passenger numbers reached 6.1 million between July and September, up from 2.5 million a year ago and also an increase on the 5 million carried in the second quarter of 2022.
Over winter, Norwegian will cut capacity by around 25 per cent and then intends to operate 85 aircraft in summer 2023. This compares to the carrier’s current fleet of 69 aircraft.
Earlier this year, Norwegian and fellow Nordic carrier Wideroe announced they were planning to work more closely together in several areas including ticket sales. This deal was finalised in September.
“While demand for air travel may be impacted by the current macro-economic and geopolitical uncertainty, booking trends remain encouraging,” added Karlsen.