Norwegian Air has posted a $102 million (NOK 1,031 million) loss for the first quarter of 2022.
The results, which were revealed on May 13, 2021, show a slight improvement when compared to the same period in 2021.
However, the airline’s recent performance shows a significant downturn in comparison to the previous quarter, during which Norwegian Air managed to post a profit of around $11.8 million (NOK 117 million).
Norwegian Air referred to Q1 2022 as “the seasonally weakest quarter of the year”. The airline said that the passenger demand in the first half of the quarter was negatively impacted by the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus. The low-cost airline carried 2.2 million passengers, up from 0.2 million in the same period in 2021.
“The spread of omicron virus and government-imposed travel restrictions had a softening effect on air travel in December of 2021 that continued into January and February this year,” the statement said.
However, as restrictions in the Nordics and at key European destinations were alleviated from mid-February, the airline noticed “a marked increase” in both the passenger demand and ticket bookings.
“The use of flexible fleet arrangements through power-by-the-hour lease agreements enabled Norwegian to quickly adapt capacity to changes in demand, minimizing losses through an already challenging winter trading period,” the report continued.
Meanwhile, the airline also shared its outlook for summer 2022, revealing that it is currently “well-positioned to respond to increasing passenger traffic and strong pent-up demand ahead of the busy summer 2022 leisure season “with its fleet capacity of 58 aircraft.
“Travel restrictions have been lifted across the Nordics and all key European destinations, and our customers now have a wide selection of European travel destinations to choose from. Booking trends currently show that customers are planning and booking travels earlier and that there is higher willingness to pay for air travel across Norwegian’s network,” the airline added.