Going South: Norwegian's flight plans

From its origins as a Scandinavian low-cost carrier more than 10 years ago, Norwegian has grown steadily at 10% each year since 2010 and stretched its wings in late 2015 to include long haul operations.  Flights doubled between 2010 and 2018 and seat capacity reached 46m in 2018, up from just 18.4m million in 2010.

Whilst Norwegian’s short-haul European business still accounts for just over 80% of its capacity, this core part of the airline is not growing. Intra-European capacity fell by 11% this summer, with capacity reductions across some key markets including the Norwegian, Swedish and Spanish domestic markets and, overall, the carrier’s Summer 2019 capacity was down by 6% on last summer. 

Average fares for the 12 months to June 2019 show an interesting picture.  When we compare Norwegian’s average fares against the European average for travel within Western Europe, Norwegian’s average fares track consistently around 30% lower than the European figure.  Whilst this might be good news for consumers it is not such good news for investors.

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