Press release - 6 May 2010 07:01

April traffic figures: Norwegian strongly affected by closed European airspace in April

Norwegian’s passenger figures were strongly affected by the unexpected closing of European airspace in April due to volcanic ash. Close to 2 000 flights were cancelled. A total of 800 000 passengers flew with Norwegian. The company had a production growth of 13 percent compared to April last year.

“April has been a challenging month for Norwegian because of the authorities’ closing of European airspace, but we are satisfied with the April figures taking the severe disruption into consideration.

Our passengers have suffered, and Norwegian have lost at least NOK 100 million. We have done everything in our power to safely transport our stranded passengers home, and we commenced flight operations as soon as we were given clearance by the authorities. We are pleased that traffic is now back to normal, and we are very satisfied with a 91 percent on-time performance, particularly given the major disruptions we have been subjected to,” said Bjørn Kjos, Chief Executive Officer of Norwegian.

The yield is estimated at 0.51 NOK for April, down 19 percent compared to the same month in 2009. The development partially reflects a significantly adjusted route portfolio and the introduction of five new Boeing 737-800 aircraft with higher capacity and lower unit cost. The yield is also negatively affected by the closing of European airspace.

The airline’s load factor was 71 percent, 8 percent lower than April 2009. The reduction is partially caused by slow recovery of passenger traffic during the first week of resumed operations.

Norwegian operated 79.9 percent of its scheduled flights in April, of which 91.1 percent departed on time. The underlying regularity adjusted for the disruptions due to the closure of European airspace was 96.6 percent.

Please find more financial figures in the attached PDF.

Contacts:

SVP, Corporate Communications, Anne-Sissel Skånvik, phone +47 48 99 44 40

CFO, Frode Foss, phone +47 91 63 16 45.

Topics

Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA, commercially branded “Norwegian,” is a public low-cost airline noted on the Oslo Stock Exchange. The company is the second largest airline in Scandinavia, and has a route portfolio that stretches across Europe into North Africa and the Middle East. With competitive prices and customer friendly solutions and service, the company has experienced significant growth over the previous years. With more than 10.7 million passengers in 2009, Norwegian is the 4th largest low-cost airline in Europe. The turnover in 2009 was in excess of NOK 7.3 billion. Norwegian currently operates 52 aircraft on 230 routes to 91 destinations and employes approximately 2 000 people.

Contacts

For journalists only

Press contact Norwegian Press Office press@norwegian.com +47 815 11 816

Marketing/sponsorhip requests: marketing@norwegian.com

Press contact Marketing/sponsorship requests: marketing@norwegian.com

Norwegian's Traffic Figures April 2010

Norwegian’s passenger traffic, production and number of passengers in April were heavily disrupted by the closure of European airspace due to volcanic ash. The total number of passengers flown in April 2010 was 791,371 compared to 861,530 last year, a decrease of 70,159 passengers (-8 %).

Norwegian.com

The Norwegian group is a leading Nordic aviation company, headquartered at Fornebu outside Oslo, Norway. The company has over 8,200 employees and owns two of the prominent airlines in the Nordics: Norwegian Air Shuttle and Widerøe’s Flyveselskap. Widerøe was acquired by Norwegian in 2024, aiming to facilitate seamless air travel across the two airline’s networks.

Norwegian Air Shuttle, the largest Norwegian airline with around 4,700 employees, operates an extensive route network connecting Nordic countries to key European destinations. In 2023, Norwegian carried over 20 million passengers and maintained a fleet of 87 Boeing 737-800 and 737 MAX 8 aircraft.

Widerøe’s Flyveselskap, Norway’s oldest airline, is Scandinavia’s largest regional carrier. The airline has more than 3,500 employees. Mainly operating the short-runway airports in rural Norway, Widerøe operates several state contract routes (PSO routes) in addition to its own commercial network. In 2023, the airline had 3.3 million passengers and a fleet of 48 aircraft, including 45 Bombardier Dash 8’s and three Embraer E190-E2's. Widerøe Ground Handling provides ground handling services at 41 Norwegian airports.

The Norwegian group has sustainability as a key priority and has committed to significantly reducing carbon emissions from its operations. Among numerous initiatives, the most noteworthy is the investment in production and use of fossil-free aviation fuel (SAF). Norwegian strives to become the sustainable choice for its passengers, actively contributing to the transformation of the aviation industry.