By Vera Dvorakova and Agnieszka Olenska
(Reuters) -Budget airline Norwegian Air reported second-quarter earnings above market expectations on Friday and said it would pay a dividend for the first time in its 23-year history, sending its shares up nearly 8%.
Norwegian said that it had seen particularly strong demand in June, reporting its highest passenger numbers and load factor since the pandemic, as the airline industry slowly gets back on its feet.
“The operating profit and margin are the second highest we have ever had in this quarter, and the passenger numbers and load factor are the highest in a second quarter since 2019,” Norwegian’s CEO Geir Karlsen said in a statement.
Shares in the company were trading up 7.7% by 0906 GMT.
“While a dividend announcement was somewhat anticipated later this fall, it’s clearly a positive to see it confirmed already,” said Pareto Securities analyst Marcus Gavelli.
Norwegian reported second quarter operating profit (EBIT) of 1.25 billion Norwegian crowns ($124 million), beating a company-compiled consensus of 1.04 billion crowns.
The company also said it would pay a dividend of 0.90 crowns per share.
The carrier expects its unit costs – the average cost of flying an aircraft seat – excluding fuel to increase by a low to mid-single-digit percentage compared to 2024, slightly lower than first-quarter guidance.
Norwegian is set to buy three leased Boeing aircraft, it said on Tuesday. It previously bought 10 aircraft in March.
Karlsen said owning the aircraft offered better value than leasing.
The Norwegian state converted half of the pandemic loan it provided for the airline’s reconstruction in 2021 into a stake in the company in May and then sold it. Norwegian then redeemed the other half.
“We are seeing an increased traffic flow from Europe into Scandinavia and the Nordics,” Karlsen said, adding that the increase was both for winter and summer. It is also cheaper to travel to Scandinavia due to a relatively weak local currency, he said.
The company did not provide guidance for its annual operating profit and kept its capacity outlook of 37,500 million seat kilometres.
(Reporting by Agnieszka Olenska and Vera Dvorakova in Gdansk; Editing by Matt Scuffham and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
