Norwegian Group started the year on a strong note, with an increase in passenger numbers across both Norwegian and Widerøe. Meanwhile, the airline also announced its winter programme for the 2025-2026 season, featuring continued popular routes and expanded connectivity across the Nordic region.
Norwegian Group recorded a total of 1,567,875 passengers, with Norwegian carrying 1,273,809 passengers and Widerøe transporting 294,066. This represents a 12% increase for Norwegian and a notable 19% growth for Widerøe compared to January 2024.
CEO Geir Karlsen highlighted the airline’s strategic expansion, noting that Norwegian’s capacity (Available Seat Kilometres, ASK) rose by 23% year-on-year. The actual passenger traffic (Revenue Passenger Kilometres, RPK) also grew by 22%. However, this rapid expansion impacted Norwegian’s load factor, which dropped slightly to 82.1%.
Despite weather-related disruptions in early January, Norwegian maintained a flight regularity rate of 98.6% and an overall punctuality of 71.3%, improving to 85.5% in the latter half of the month. The airline operated an average of 72 aircraft during this period.
Widerøe also saw a steady performance, with its capacity increasing by 4% and passenger traffic reaching 108 million seat kilometres. The airline’s load factor rose to 68.4%, up 6.1 percentage points from last year.
As Norwegian prepares for a busy summer season, the airline took delivery of two new Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft in January, which will be stationed at its Copenhagen base. The summer schedule, commencing at the end of March, includes 344 routes to over 120 destinations. Norwegian has introduced 17 new routes, including:
Karlsen advised travellers to book early for the upcoming Easter and summer travel seasons, citing high demand.
Norwegian has now opened ticket sales for its 2025-2026 winter season. UK-based travellers will benefit from direct flights to Nordic destinations from London Gatwick, Manchester, and Edinburgh. The airline will continue operating its highly popular winter routes to Tromsø and Rovaniemi, in addition to maintaining connections to major Nordic capitals and regional cities.
Popular routes from London Gatwick include:
Manchester will also see continued direct flights to destinations such as Copenhagen, Oslo, Stavanger, Bergen, and Tromsø. Norwegian will further operate routes between Dublin and Oslo, as well as Edinburgh and key Nordic cities.
For the 2025-2026 winter season, Norwegian will offer a total of 159 routes to 82 destinations across the Nordic region, with route distribution as follows:
Additional destinations are expected to be announced at a later date.
Norwegian follows a biannual schedule transition, switching between summer and winter programmes at the end of March and October. The upcoming summer season will feature over 340 routes, including a new direct connection between Ålesund and London Gatwick, as well as Newcastle and Copenhagen.
This post was published on 6 February 2025 09:22
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