Norwegian Air blamed the August bank holiday Monday air traffic control glitch for more than a third of flight cancellations last month and “heavy delays”.
The Scandinavian carrier faced “challenging circumstances” last month, including air traffic troubles in the UK and high winds and floods caused by Storm Hans in southern Norway.
Operations were impacted by the outage at National Air Traffic Services (Nats) in the UK on August 28, “causing heavy delays and 40% of this month’s cancellations”.
Chief executive Geir Karlsen said: “Unforeseen events, such as Storm Hansin Scandinavia and air traffic control issues in the UK affected our operations this month.
“I am glad that we were able to set up additional flights between Oslo and Bergen as well as Trondheim.
“We also managed to offer alternative flights to all our passengers to and from the UK on the day following the air traffic issues.”
He was speaking as the airline revealed carryings of 2.1 million passengers and a load factor of 85.2% in August.
The airline’s summer schedule for 2024 is due to be released next week, with further routes to new destinations being added in November.
But Karlsen voiced concern about the potential increases in airport fees in Norway “and how this may negatively impact our customers”.