Just 74,224 people flew with the airline in the first month of the year, down some 96 percent compared to the same period last year and the carriers load factor was a dismal 35.9 percent.
Norwegian operated eight aircraft on average in January, mainly on domestic routes in Norway. Surprisingly the company operated 96.8 percent of its scheduled flights in January, whereof only 90.4 percent departed on time.
Jacob Schram, CEO of Norwegian, said: “The pandemic continues to have a negative impact on our business as travel restrictions remain. We are doing everything in our power to come out of the examinership as a stronger, more competitive airline and we look forward to welcoming more customers on board as travel restrictions are lifted.”
The airline is under fire from unions in a number of countries for walking away from paying proper redundancy payments to staff that were laid off when the firm decided it was pulling the plug on its long-haul operations. The company is also accused of siphoning off money to various subsidiary and associated companies in a concerted effort to avoid paying up for its responsibilities. Whilst it is commonplace for airlines to get ground European regulations by opening up sideline companies in different countries to employ local staff on lower rates of pay and less favourable terms, many former staff are calling for an enquiry by both the Norwegian and European authorities into the practice.
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