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Trio of low cost carriers report improved October performance

Low cost carriers easyJet, Norwegian and Wizz Air all carried more passengers last month.

The UK budget airline saw passenger numbers grow by 14.1% to more than 8.5 million in October over the same month last year.

This gave the airline an annual rolling total up 10.6% to 89.5 million.

However, the October load factor fell by two percentage points to 90.5%.

Norwegian carryings last month rose by 8% year-on-year to almost 3.4 million with a load factor of 85%.

CEO Bjorn Kjos said: “We are very pleased that an increasing number of passengers choose Norwegian for their travels.

“The long-haul routes represent the largest growth this month and the demand is satisfactory.

“However, we are now entering a period of lower demand, tough competition and high oil prices, making it even more important for the company to continue reducing its costs.”

Wizz Air passenger numbers increased by 12.5% against October last year to 3.2 million with an improved load factor of 94%.

The eastern and central European budget airline saw a “significantly improved” operational performance with on-time performance at 83% and only 12 flights cancelled.

The airline gained permission for Wizz Air UK to be granted a UK route licence, “future-proofing” the status of the UK arm as a British airline,
“regardless of the outcome of the negotiations and therefore will enable the group to continue flying from the UK to non-EU countries following Brexit”.

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