Norwegian Air eyes pre-pandemic European travel demand in 2023-24

Budget airline Norwegian Air expects demand for European short-haul travel to return to pre-pandemic levels in 2023 or 2024, it said as it presented a Q1 pretax loss of 1.19b crowns ($145m) on Thursday. The carrier this month said it aims to raise 6b crowns in fresh capital, up from the 4.5b originally planned, as part of a scheme to emerge from court-ordered bankruptcy protection next month. “It is not expected that demand for short-haul travel in Europe will return to 2019 levels before 2023 or 2024 and so Norwegian will deploy capacity back into the market at a pace that matches this,” the airline said. Financed largely by debt, Norwegian Air grew rapidly as it served routes across Europe and to North and South America, Southeast Asia and the Middle East before the COVID-19 pandemic plunged the airline into crisis. The carrier is currently operating nine aircraft, mainly on Norwegian domestic routes.<br/>