Norwegian has reported its strongest passenger growth has come from Gatwick.
The low-cost airline’s Q3 results for 2014 show that the airline carried 7.1 million passengers in the period, up from 6 million in the same period in the previous year, while capacity grew 36%.
The UK market has seen the bioggest growth with statistics showing passenger numbers for the third quarter have grown by 47% since 2009.
Despite the growth and a load factor of 85%, a three percentage point increase year on year, the pre tax profit was 505 million krone as opposed to 604 million krone the previous year.
The drop was blamed on a number of factors including a weak Norwegian krone and delayed approval from the US department of transportation for flights.
Delayed flights have also proved costly, the airline said, including wet-leasing replacement aircraft and extra fuel as well as accommodation and food and drink for affected passengers.
Costs association with the “long overdue application” before the US department of transportation for a foreign air carrier permit for Norwegian’s Irish subsidiary, Norwegian Air International, are also described as “considerable”.
Chief executive Bjørn Kjos said: “We’re very satisfied that throughout our world-wide route network, an increasing number of new passengers choose Norwegian.
“Norwegian has recently received several international awards and was even named ‘Europe’s best low-cost airline’ the second year running. However, we have also experienced some turbulence this quarter.
“Our results are affected by additional costs related to the pending US permit for our subsidiary in Dublin, consequently reducing our ability to optimize our fleet of aircraft.
“Even though technical difficulties with our Boeing 787 Dreamliners have also caused additional costs, our long-haul operation now consists of more aircraft and improved reliability.
“Looking into 2015, we will see a year of consolidation and lower growth. Next year, our fleet of short-haul aircraft will consist exclusively of Boeing 737-800s as older Boeing 737-300s will be phased out.”
