Norwegian Air reports rise in April load factor, yield

Norwegian Air filled more seats on its planes and earned higher revenues per customer in April while dealing with the grounding of its 18 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, it said, sending the company’s shares sharply higher in early trade. The company said last month that the global grounding of 737 MAX jets, which followed deadly crashes of airliners in Indonesia and Ethiopia, could scupper Norwegian’s plan to return to profitability this year. So far however, the carrier has managed to limit the impact from the grounding of around 11% of its fleet by combining flights and offering passengers alternative departures, it said. Norwegian’s load factor, the percentage of seats sold, rose to 86.1% from 83.0% a year earlier, beating an analyst forecast of 85.9%. Yield rose to 0.41 Norwegian crowns ($0.0471) from 0.33 crowns in March, topping the 0.38 crowns expected by analysts in a Reuters poll. While analysts had anticipated an income boost, there had been uncertainty about the impact of the 737 MAX groundings, as well as a strike among pilots at rival SAS. “Overall, the traffic report implies that (earnings) estimates should increase,” wrote Pareto Securities, which holds a buy recommendation on the stock with a share price target of 100 crowns.<br/>