Norwegian Air shares jump as airline swings to Q2 profit

Shares in Norwegian Air surged on Friday after the carrier swung to a profit in the second quarter on the back of strong passenger growth and an improved cost performance.

The company said it was "well prepared" for the second half of the year and beyond, but warned that capacity growth will likely slow next year due to aircraft delivery delays from Boeing.

Pre-tax profit came in at NOK477m (£34m), compared with a loss of NOK903.5m the year before and comfortably ahead of the NOK359m profit expected by the market.

The company flew 7.3m passengers during the three months to 30 June, of which 6.3m travelled with Norwegian and 1.0m through the Widerøe brand, resulting in passenger revenues of NOK7.82bn, up from NOK5.62bn previously.

The number of passengers carried rose 680,000 for Norwegian and 122,000 for Widerøe. Meanwhile, available seat kilometres for Norwegian were up 19% year-on-year at 10.3bn, and rose 2% at Widerøe.

The stock was up nearly 6% at NOK11.185 by 1210 in Oslo.