The boss of Norwegian Air has warned of a “prolonged” Covid crisis as year-on-year September carryings plummeted by 90%.
Less than 320,000 passengers flew with the Scandinavian budget carrier last month.
Traffic was heavily influenced by lower demand caused by new and stricter travel restrictions across Europe.
Capacity was down by 93% as carryings dropped by 90% and the load factor fell by 37 percentage points to 52.8%.
The carrier is the latest to suffer a September slump, following low cost rivals Ryanair reporting a 64% drop and Wizz Air down 59%.
Norwegian Air chief executive Jacob Schram said: “In September several European countries were classified as ‘red’ by the authorities.
“We have seen that as soon as the authorities impose new travel restrictions demand is immediately impacted.
“We are continuously adapting our route network in line with changing demand, but the frequent changes in travel restrictions make forward planning difficult, both for us and our customers.
“Looking ahead, this continues to be a prolonged crisis that is far from over.”
The airline operated 99.2% of its limited scheduled flights in September, with a 97.6% on time departure.
Norwegian previously reported a 71% passenger decline in the first half of the year as it grounded 140 aircraft, cut 8,000 staff by furlough or lay-offs and suffered a net loss of NOK 5.3 billion as passenger numbers dropped to 5.3 million from more than 18 million in the first half of 2019.