Strike threats from labour union Parat earlier this year cost Norwegian Air Shuttle more than £9 million, the airline has announced.
The carrier, which this month started operating low-cost long-haul flights from Gatwick to the US, said the results were influenced by “significant” one-off costs, a weak Norwegian currency, high oil prices and the Parat strike.
The threat of strike action, from one of Europe’s largest labour unions, came after Norwegian announced it wanted to split the Danish and Norwegian cabin staff into two separate companies – Cabin Services Norway and Cabin Services Denmark.
Unions feared the new agreement would weaken its members’ negotiating power and threaten accrued wages and benefits.
Norwegian’s second quarter financial results for 2014 showed a pre-tax loss of £12.9 million, with revenues rising to around £472 million from around £377 million a year earlier.
The airline said despite its strong capacity growth, the company “was still filling seats”. The load factor was 80 per cent, up three percentage points from the same quarter last year, which is a record high for a second quarter.
Norwegian’s CEO Bjorn Kjos, said: “This quarter, we see clear results of the company’s strategy. Over the past year, we have established a long-haul operation and we have opened several new bases in Europe.
“More than half of our 417 routes are currently operated outside Norway, which illustrates a significant international expansion over the past year.”
“Both wet lease of aircraft and the strike from labour union Parat has affected the result significantly. There is also a high competitive pressure, particularly in the Scandinavian market,” he said.
Norwegian.com