Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA on Wednesday reported a forecast-beating rise in third-quarter net profit after seeing strong pent-up demand during the peak summer travel season.
The low-cost carrier
NAS,
reported a net profit of 909.7 million Norwegian kroner ($87.5 million) compared with NOK168.7 billion a year earlier.
Total revenue rose to NOK7.12 billion as it carried 6.08 million passengers compared with 2.46 million a year earlier.
A FactSet poll had expected a net profit of NOK806 million on revenue of NOK7.04 billion.
Current booking trends are encouraging, although visibility is low, with many customers booking travels close to date of departure, the airline said.
Compared with the end of the third quarter of 2022, the company is projecting a capacity reduction of around 25% for the coming months.
“Demand is expected to soften as we enter the winter trading period, but Norwegian is well prepared for this,” Chief Executive Geir Karlsen said.
Norwegian said that for 2023 it is targeting production of 35 billion available seat kilometers–a measure of carrying capacity–up from a target of 27.5 billion for 2022–and a reduction in unit cost, excluding fuel.
Write to Dominic Chopping at [email protected]
