Norwegian has not had to cancel any flights as a result of the Iran war, according to Geir Karlsen.
We have had to cancel flights, but it is for other reasons. It could be technical reasons. During the summer we have flown everything we have actually sold. And we will continue to do so, he says.
He is taking the fuel price shock this year - and the risk of fuel shortages ahead of the winter season - in stride. Norwegian has 55 percent of its fuel needs hedged this year and perhaps 20-30 percent in 2027 - at a significantly lower price than the airline would have to pay to buy jet fuel now, according to Karlsen.
Level reached
But high fuel prices have had an effect.
Ticket prices have gone up. Our passengers have been willing to pay for this to a certain extent, says Karlsen.
The price increases are negatively affecting demand, so they have been adjusted down slightly since last spring.
"We have reached a level where passengers no longer want to pay that much more. And right now it is no more expensive to fly than it was at the same time last year," he adds.
This summer's deal to buy Nordic Leisure Travel Group (NLTG) - with Swedish Ving, Danish Spies and Finnish Tjäreborg as well as the airline Sunclass - is being reviewed by the EU for competition. Karlsen expects the green light before the end of the year.
The next step will be a secondary listing of the already Oslo-listed Norwegian share on the Stockholm Stock Exchange.
The Swedish stock market is much larger and deeper in its investor base, says Karlsen.
Hotels in Spain
The NLTG deal brings new owners into the company - including Petter Stordalen - as Norwegian partly pays with its own shares. But via the Stockholm Stock Exchange, Karlsen also hopes that long-term institutional investors will invest in the airline.
Before Christmas, we should have received the go-ahead from the competition authorities. My thought is that - if we are going to do a stock market listing - there is no reason to wait. Then we will go.
With Ving in the portfolio and hotel magnate Stordalen among the owners, Karlsen sees new expansion opportunities. New hotels in destinations where Norwegian already flies a lot are a goal.
Then we should push on and achieve something good.
For example, we fly almost five million passengers to Spain every year. And Ving doesn't have any concept hotels on the Spanish mainland at all. There is great potential here.
The full year 2026 will end with a profit for airline Norwegian, according to CEO Geir Karlsen, despite the huge loss in the second quarter.
“There will be a great surplus this year too,” he says.
This applies even if you include the effects of higher fuel prices and the penalty Norwegian was forced to book in the second quarter of this year of 733 million Norwegian kroner as a result of the deviations from the EU's climate quotas that the company had during the pandemic.
The booking situation also looks better right now than last year.
“We have slightly more well-filled aircraft during the rest of the year than we had during the same period last year,” says Karlsen.
Source: Norwegian, TT
