- Net profit of 1,135m NOK (€128m)
- Total revenue of over 26bn NOK (€2.9bn) – up 16pc
- Load factor of 88pc.
- Took delivery of 21 new aircraft in 2016
Norwegian Air – which is set to details of its new services from Ireland to the US – made a profit of €128m last year, the airline revealed. It said the results are influenced by Norwegian’s international growth, particularly on intercontinental routes, as well as increased presence in Britain and Spain.
A total of 29.3m passengers travelled with Europe’s third-biggest low-cost carrier by passenger numbers in 2016, an increase of 14pc on 2015.
Bjørn Kjos CEO of Norwegian
Norwegian CEO Bjorn Kjos said: “We are very pleased to report our best ever results in a year of strong international growth, establishing operations in new markets and tough competition. Through our global strategy, we are contributing an economic boost and increased employment at our destinations, as well as ensuring that more people can afford to fly – not least between the continents. In 2016, we received several major international customer awards, which would never have been possible without our dedicated colleagues at Norwegian.
“We enter 2017 with the ambition to increase and strengthen our foothold in established markets, while simultaneously developing our route network in new parts of the world. This year, 32 brand new aircraft will enter service, including nine Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners. We will launch more than 50 new routes and recruit over 2,000 new colleagues worldwide.”
But Kjos warned of turbulence ahead due to Britain’s vote to leave the European Union and the fall in the value of sterling. “England has received a punch after Brexit. So one must expect that English retirees will have less money, so this will hit the traffic to Spain,” he said after the quarterly results presentation.
But Davy Stockbrokers in Dublin gave a lukewarm response to the carrier’s latest figures, particularly for the final quarter of last year. “Norwegian’s Q4 results invoke a sense of déjà-vu. The underlying cost performance was again disappointing – down 1pc versus our -3pc expectation, with the largest escalation occurring across peripheral cost lines in anticipation of 2017 growth,” analysts said.
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