Norwegian Air has released its traffic figures for December, revealing that the number of passengers that flew with the airline last month declined by 94% year-on-year to 129,664.
Capacity, Total Passenger Traffic And Load Factor
Meanwhile, the airline's capacity and total passenger traffic both declined by 98% and its load factor declined by 31 percentage points to 52.3%.
Scheduled Flights
Additionally, Norwegian Air operated 95.6% of its scheduled flights in December and an average of nine aircraft, mainly on domestic routes in Norway, with 88.5% of its flights departing on time last month.
"A Very Challenging Year"
In a statement published on Norwegian Air's website, the airline's CEO, Jacob Schram, said, "The pandemic continues to have a negative impact on our business as it has had since March 2020. At the beginning of last year, Norwegian was headed for a positive result in 2020, instead 2020 has been a very challenging year and we now find ourselves fighting for survival. Despite low demand in December, Christmas bookings were positive, and we have succeeded in adapting our operations to the current situation. Our goal is to be a financially strong and competitive airline, with a new financial structure, a rightsized fleet and improved customer offering.
"The support from our customers, employees and suppliers this past year has been extraordinary. We all wish to travel and meet our friends and loved ones again, and at Norwegian our focus continues to be to connect people in a safe and comfortable way. The vaccination is now being rolled out across the world and is good news for both the aviation industry and those who want to travel. We will be ready to meet the competition for customers after the COVID-19 pandemic. 2020 has been a tough year, but we will continue to fight and come out of this crisis as a stronger Norwegian."
© 2021 Hospitality Ireland – your source for the latest industry news. Article by Dave Simpson. Click subscribe to sign up for the Hospitality Ireland print edition.
