The Norwegian Group had 2.9 million passengers in August, of which 2.5 million travelled with Norwegian and 359,000 with Widerøe. Norwegian increased both capacity and traffic compared to last year, while an air traffic controller strike in Norway affected over 20,000 passengers.

Norwegian's capacity increased by 3 percent compared to August last year to 4.1 billion seat kilometers. Actual passenger traffic rose by 4 percent to 3.55 billion passenger kilometers.

This meant that the cabin factor increased by 0.4 percentage points to 86.3 percent.

– August was a month with good demand and good operational performance. I am very pleased that we had both increased capacity and a higher load factor compared to the same month last year, says CEO Geir Karlsen.

Strike affected over 20,000 travelers

Norwegian operated 98.9 percent of its scheduled flights in August. Punctuality, measured as departures within 15 minutes of schedule, was 80.8 percent.

The figures were affected by the air traffic controller strike in Norway at the end of the month, which led to cancelled and delayed flights for over 20,000 passengers.

If the strike-related cancellations are excluded, the regularity according to Norwegian was 99.6 percent.

The airline had an average of 94 aircraft in service during the month.

Widerøe had 93 percent punctuality

Widerøe had 359,000 passengers in August. Capacity increased by 2 percent while passenger traffic was unchanged compared to last year.

The cabin factor fell by 1.8 percentage points to 75.8 percent. Regularity was 97.4 percent and punctuality was 93.3 percent.

Norwegian also states that the booking situation for the autumn remains strong, with particularly high demand around the school autumn holidays.

The group enters the fall at the same time that the loyalty program Norwegian Reward has surpassed ten million members.