Norse Atlantic sees July load factor rise to ‘world-leading’ level

Norse Atlantic Airways saw its load factor improve to 94% across all flights in July.

The increased passenger carryings per flight over the same month last year covered both the long-haul low cost carrier’s own operations and Boeing 787 Dreamliner services leased or chartered to other airlines.

Total carryings rose by 15% to 203,712.   

The load factor increased by 11 percentage points for the airline’s own scheduled network and by 12 percentage points on external operations.

The figures for last month show a rise in charter or leased out flights to 54 compared with nine in July 2024.

At the same time, the scheduled network services reduced to 604 from 630 a year earlier.

But the airline said its on-time performance “continues to be impacted” by air traffic control delays and airport congestion with just 70% of flights leaving within 15 minutes of their scheduled departure time.

Founder, chief executive and majority shareholder Bjorn Tore Larsen said: “Norse Atlantic Airways continues to deliver strong passenger growth and world-leading load factor.

“July was the ninth consecutive month above 90%, reflecting the successful introduction of our data driven market strategy late last year. 

“This provides good momentum into the third quarter as we deliver our affordable, value for money product to customers worldwide.”

Part of the airline’s fleet of Boeing 787s is being leased out to Indian carrier Indigo to allow for long-haul expansion, including the introduction of flights to India from Heathrow from October 26.