The low-fare carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle, known as Norwegian, increased the number of passengers it carried year-on-year in 2024 by over two million.
The airline carried 1.48 million passengers in December, with its newly-acquired subsidiary Widerøe carrying 293,257, totalling 1.77 million for the group. This brings the total number of passengers carried in 2024 to 26.4 million.
Norwegian’s capacity increased by 24% year-on-year, reaching 2,491 million seat kilometres, while its load factor was 82.2%, a decrease of 1.4 percentage points from December 2023.
Widerøe carried 3.8 million passengers in 2024. In December, its capacity was 152 million seat kilometres, up 2% from last year. Its load factor was 73.3%, up 2.6 percentage points from December last year.
Despite operational difficulties at the end of the year due to weather and airport issues, the carrier reported a minor improvement in punctuality.
“In 2024, we acquired Widerøe and continued with significant capacity growth throughout the year by adding new routes and destinations,” said CEO Geir Karlsen.
Meanwhile, The Oslo District Court ruled in favour of Norwegian in a case concerning its European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) obligations during its 2020 restructuring. The court deemed a NOK 400 million (GBP 28.3 million) penalty unlawful. The ruling is currently under appeal.
In 2020, the airline faced severe financial difficulties due to the pandemic and underwent a restructuring process in both Norway and Ireland to avoid bankruptcy.
During the restructuring, Norwegian failed to transfer the required number of EU ETS allowances for its 2020 emissions. This led the Norwegian Environment Agency to impose the penalty.
Photo: Norwegian
“We acquired Widerøe and continued with significant capacity growth,” Norwegian CEO, Geir Karlsen.
