More than 1.3 million people travelled on Norwegian in December, an increase of 41% over December 2021, bringing their domestic Christmas travel numbers up to pre-pandemic levels.
Over the country’s more than 40 commercial airports in 2019, 57.4 million passengers chose to fly with the Norwegian. During this time, an increasing number of destinations increased, reaching more than 150 different locations worldwide via 500 routes.
Norwegian Airlines carried 18 million passengers in 2022, but numbers in December matched that of the last pre-pandemic Christmas levels in 2019. A successful year highlighted by a tripling of passenger numbers, a resumption of strong demand for air travel, and ongoing good booking trends was closed by strong operations over the Christmas travel season endemic.
Norwegian Domestic Christmas Travel Activity
1,315,924 people travelled on Norwegian in December, a 41% increase from December 2021. The load factor in December was 77.8%. While the capacity (ASK) was 2,120 million seat kilometres, the actual passenger traffic (RPK) was 1,650 million seat kilometres.
Norwegian operated 64 aircraft in total on average during the month of December, and 99.0% of the scheduled flights were completed. According to the number of flights that left within 15 minutes of the scheduled time in December, punctuality was 71.6%. The problematic weather at various European airports was the leading cause of this.
Nearly 18 million passengers used Norwegian in 2022, or three times as many as the previous year. Over the course of the year, the load factor was 83.1%. Norwegian can now hedge jet fuel for both 2023 and 2024 because of the firm financial position of the company. The current fuel hedges, which last until 2023, are made at lower prices than the spot price.
Domestic Travel in Norway
Norway has more than fifty airports, allowing airlines to fly to even the most remote communities. SAS, Norwegian, Flyr, and Wideree are the four biggest domestic airlines.
In Norway, all major cities and towns have airports for local and international flights. In reality, the nation boasts over fifty airports with regular air service, making it feasible to travel even to far-off places like the Lofoten Islands, the North Cape, and Svalbard. To reach your final destination, you may need to change flights if you travel very far north.
Norway’s main international airports are located in Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger, Troms, Trondheim, Ålesund, Haugesund, and Sandefjord. The routes from Oslo to Trondheim, Bergen, and Stavanger are among the ten busiest in Europe, and Norway has the most flights per capita in the continent.
Exceeded expectations from the new year sale
Geir Karlsen, the CEO of Norwegian, said:
“All in all, 2022 has been a very good year for Norwegian. A strong pent-up demand for air travel, particularly for beach destinations during the peak leisure season, resulting in a record busy summer. We continue to experience positive booking trends and ticket sales are currently exceeding our expectations. Our customers have responded very positively to our New Year’s sale and are taking advantage of the campaign to plan this year’s travels, both short and long term.”
“We are delighted to see that an increasing number of Nordic passengers choose Norwegian as their preferred airline when travelling to see friends and family during the busy holiday season that this month brings. On domestic travels in Norway, passenger numbers are now on par with pre-pandemic levels. Despite challenging weather on many of the busiest travel days that affected aviation both in the Nordics and in Europe, we managed to take passengers to their Christmas destinations. More than nine out of ten flights arrived on time or within one hour of their scheduled arrival time,”
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