Jun 04, 2010

Budget airline Norwegian Air Shuttle carried 25 percent more passengers in May than a year ago, recovering from a dip in traffic in April due to cancelations caused by volcanic ash clouds over Europe.

Norwegian Air, which competes with Scandinavian leader SAS, said on Friday it carried 1.2 million passengers last month, up from 791,000 in April. In April, the key year-on-year traffic figure showed an 8 percent fall.

Total passenger traffic, measured by the number of passengers and kilometres flown (RPK), jumped 37 percent in May due to expansion of routes over the past year and a 5 percent rise in average flying distance.

The yield -- the average revenue per passenger carried and kilometre flown -- was 0.51 Norwegian kroner in May, down 14 percent year-on-year.

The load factor, which measures seats sold as a percentage of capacity, was flat in May at 77 percent, Norwegian Air said.

(Reuters)

Source: http://news.airwise.com/story/view/1275660363.html