Good morning, and welcome to the first quarter 2026 presentation for the Norwegian Group. My name is Jesper Hatletveit, and I'm the VP of Investor Relations here at Norwegian. Today's presentation will be held by our CEO, Geir Karlsen, and our CFO, Hans-Jørgen Wibstad. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A from the audience and the web. Please go ahead, Geir.
Thank you, Jesper. Good morning to everyone. Also, good morning to the ones listening in online. It's a beautiful morning in Oslo. The sun is shining. The low season is behind us, and we are looking forward to a summer season that is going to be hectic and we are going to fly a lot, and the demand is looking very promising. Let's start by having a look at the first quarter of this year. EBIT negative of NOK 200 million. This is a significant improvement from the same quarter last year. Very happy to see that Program X is really starting to deliver. NOK 196 million in this quarter. And I will come back to a little bit more details on Program X a little bit later. Very strong traffic growth in the quarter.
It's a record first quarter load factor in Norwegian at 87.6%. We have a volatile macro situation, not least on the fuel side. But at the same time, in Norwegian we are 45% hedged, and we have seen tailwinds on the FX, meaning that the Norwegian krone on the relative has gotten stronger. Also, very helpful that the ETS quota prices has come down from the low EUR 90 a ton to down at the 60s for the quarter, which is obviously helping. The underlying cost excluding fuel is 2% up. I will come back to the guidance for the full year a little bit later.
Widerøe, talking about operational excellence, is delivering a great quarter when it comes to the daily operation on both punctuality, on-time performance improved to 87%, which is impressive in a very difficult part of the year. Also, regularity at 97% with all the weather we are experiencing in the markets where Widerøe is flying. I can see that I have both the CFO and the CEO in Widerøe in the room here today, and I have to say that great job to you and all your colleagues in Widerøe. Also, regularity in Norwegian, 99.4%. We have always said that we are going to fly the network we have for sale, meaning we have very few cancellations. This is another example of that.
Cirium, we are still top 10 in Europe when it comes to punctuality. I would like to be on top five, but that is difficult, especially in the low season with all the weather we are experiencing up here in the north. Close to 500 routes in combination between the two airlines. Net Promoter Score, that is the feedback from our customers, is at very high levels at more than 50. Also, very good to see that Widerøe is really moving up the ladder when it comes to the NPS score. As we say, why connect when you can fly direct? Meaning that we are the airline in the Nordics with most direct routes from the Nordics to Europe.
We are continuing to push on the corporate markets, as we have been doing for quite a while, and we are very much looking forward to bringing and welcoming Reitan on board, coming live during the next couple of months. Finally, I have been talking about the new distribution platform now for almost two years. Finally, we are live, and we can now offer interlining with Widerøe, for example, where you can now actually book a combination on Norwegian and Widerøe on Norwegian's website. You cannot do it on the app yet, but that will come. Balance sheet. We are continuing to work on the balance sheet. Cash position increased during the quarter to NOK 14.2 billion. Net debt reduced to NOK 4.4 billion.
We are seeing when we are seeking financing, these days we are seeking financings for the spare engines that we bought, 11 engines. Looking at the terms and conditions that we receive from 20 banks to 30 banks, it is at levels terms-wise that we have never seen in Norwegian before. The credit Norwegian is performing well, and we are finally getting extremely attractive terms when it comes to financing our assets. We are planning to pay dividend NOK 0.8 per share based on an approval from the upcoming AGM. We do expect that that will be approved, and then we will pay out the dividend. We are having a very volatile situation when it comes to the fuel side due to the situation in the Middle East.
We have, as I will go through a little bit later, hedged 45%, and we have also seen an uptick in demand, especially into the western and southern part of Europe, and we think that that demand has shifted from the Middle East to these destinations. We have filed an appeal to the Supreme Court of Norway on the ETS case, and we do expect that we will have an outcome, final outcome of that case during the year. A little bit on numbers.
Mm-hmm.
5.2 million passengers in the quarter. That's 2% up compared to the same quarter last year, and that is on a capacity reduction, actually, on both airlines, 6% down in Norwegian, 2% down in Widerøe. Very happy to see the high load factor in Norwegian, up five percentage points to 87.6%. It's a record.
Mm-hmm
As mentioned. I have to say again, when it comes to on-time performance and regularity in Widerøe, very impressive. Punctuality in Norwegian is actually down 3 percentage points, mostly due to weather conditions in the markets we were flying during the quarter. But on regularity, still at very high levels, and very close to our targets. Little bit on the winter traffic. This is a graph that we show every quarter, and as you can see, we have a lot of seasonality in Norwegian. Little bit flatter curve in Widerøe. But this shows how we flex between the different seasons, and by that, you know, we are keeping a relatively stable load factor, which is very important.
We are 6% down on capacity in this quarter compared to the same quarter last year. We are flying 2% more passengers, and again, historic high Q1 load factor. Not least the very nice development on the yield, up 5% compared to last year. With a 6% capacity reduction, we are quite happy with the results, and it seems like we hit where we wanted pretty well. We are now moving into the peak season, where we expect to carry much more passengers, and hopefully then also we will see a nice development both in load and on yield.
Looking at the same for Widerøe, very good to see the load factors coming up over the last couple of months. 70.2% load, 930,000 passengers, up 2%, as well. As mentioned a couple of times now, the performance operationally has been absolutely fantastic in Widerøe during the quarter. Normally, this is also then giving good results on the bottom line. Very happy to see that Widerøe is absolutely delivering an EBIT positive of NOK 38 million, which is NOK 81 million improvement from the same period last year. Widerøe had their record year in 2025. I think we have a great chance of actually beating that in 2026. Keep up in Widerøe.
Looking at the bookings going forward, to the left, on the top there, it shows seven-day rolling sales figures on numbers of passengers. That's all markets, all destinations and travel when you want. Normally, these curves will show that we have a peak in sales in the New Year's New Year sale that we have every year. Special thing this year is that we have actually a peak in March, and that this is after or post the Iran situation. Very interesting to see. Then it flattens out, comes down, and you see the typical Easter effect. Easter is earlier this year than last year.
That's why you see the dip in the red line there, and you see it, you know, the comparable one is the blue, coming a few weeks later. Also good to see that the curve as per today is higher than last year. We saw a decline in bookings after the situation in Iran, especially in Turkey and in Cyprus. We also saw an increase in demand, as mentioned, in the southwest and south of Europe, you know, when this happened. All in all, I think we could say that, you know, it looks promising for the months to come. I'll come back a little bit to details on it. We are ready for the summer season. We have all the crew we need.
We have all the aircraft we need. Everybody is ready for a busy summer season. Capacity-wise, we are up 5% compared to last year for the second quarter as a whole. We have increased the capacity, especially in June, with 8%-9%. If you look at the booked revenue, then this is travel from May to August. On load, we are marginally behind in April. That is mostly due to the Easter effect. We are flat to marginally below on load in June as well. Have in mind, we have 8%-9% capacity growth. On the other months, we are ahead of last year. We have, as per today, sold 300,000 tickets more than this, than the same date last year.
I would say it looks very comfortable when it comes to the load. On yield, we are ahead of last year on most months. The exception is again June, where we are marginally behind. Hopefully we can catch up and get in front of the line when we end June. I think all in all, very happy with the bookings going forward. We have a capacity increase compared to last year, and it seems like the increases in fares that we have put in place, and we have increased the fares due to the situation, not at least in, on the fuel side. It seems like this is sticking with the customers.
They're actually willing to pay more for a ticket today. Probably because they understand the situation that we are in with fuel prices that has increased a lot. Little bit about the macro situation. The production that Norwegian has had to the Middle East has been kind of limited. Yes, we have been flying to Dubai from the three capitals in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. That is obviously now canceled. Normally, we just fly it in during the wintertime, and that is canceled. We had a plan to start up to fly to Tel Aviv and to Beirut.
That is also postponed and canceled for the time being, and this is the capacity that we have been moving over to high-demand routes in Europe, flying typically down to the Mediterranean, where you are seeing a very strong demand these days. 45% hedged for the remainder of the year. This is in combination, let's say combined for the two airlines, Norwegian and Widerøe. We are hedged against the jet fuel, not against the crude oil, and we are doing it by doing swaps where the counterparts typically are banks. That is out there. On when it comes to availability of fuel, I have been reading a lot in the media lately about, you know, how big of a problem this is going to be.
Looking at the situation today from Norwegian, we are quite confident that, you know, we will get the fuel we need you know, as long as we can have visibility today. We are talking to our suppliers all the time, and as per today, there is no signs from at least them that there will be a lack of fuel in the short term. What we are seeing is that we are actually sourcing our fuel mostly from Scandinavia and some part of Europe. We are seeing that the European producers of jet fuel is increasing their capacity. We are also seeing that the import of fuel into Europe is increasing both from the U.S. and also increasing from Africa.
It's also more crude oil coming into the market, giving the refineries, you know, the optionality to actually produce more fuel. For the time being, we are quite comfortable on the fuel situation, and we haven't canceled anything. We are not planning to cancel anything either, and then we will just follow the situation very closely, obviously, and then to have a look at the fuel situation. Again, we are seeing a very strong demand, very healthy bookings, and we have increased the fares, and to some extent, this is compensating for the fact that we have seen higher fuel prices. Hans-Jørgen.
Thank you, Geir. Good morning, everyone. Nice to see you here. I will, as usual, go through the Q1 results in some more detail, starting with the revenues, which are up 6%, as Geir said, to NOK 55.8 billion. That's pretty strong on the basis of an ASK, which is down 6%, and that's reflecting the unit cost increase that I will talk about a little bit later. Widerøe coming in with a nice NOK 1.9 billion. As Geir also mentioned, there is traffic improving across the group.
We see that we have been able to optimize the winter production in a very nice way, taking down the capacity, the ASK, by 6%, with the impact of that partially being that the unit revenue is up and quite a big increase by 13% year-over-year, both on higher load factor and yield. Of course, there is a small Easter impact in March of that, but overall, also looking at March, February and January in combination, it is a strong figure. Again, Widerøe delivering a nice 2% increase.
Looking at the operating result, a negative NOK 220 million, it's not nice to report a negative figure, but seasonally this is a very strong figure, and it's a very significant improvement from last year, nearly NOK 400 million. That's without taking into account the non-recurring impact of the acquisition of 10 aircraft in 2025, which had an impact of nearly NOK 590 million. The underlying improvement is bigger than it looks at the EBIT, the direct EBIT comparison. Looking at the Norwegian EBIT, negative NOK 259 million, and then with Widerøe coming in with a nice profit, and that's really good. As we've talked about several times, it's smoothing out. Widerøe's operational and business model is less seasonal than it is with Norwegian.
That's a good combination. As also mentioned before, we have some macro tailwind or advantages from a strengthening in Norwegian kroner versus the U.S. dollar. We have attractive hedges that have helped us in this quarter, and also the ETS price coming down. There is some tailwind on the kind of macro elements, and then which also has an impact on this OGL offset against the losses of NOK 284 million. I think the important thing though, and I will come back to that, is the underlying improvement, which is significant, which also results in a unit cost which is up only 2% on the basis of an ASK which is down 6%.
That's kind of a number which is better than we have seen historically and really gives a strong signal that there is good cost control in Norwegian, partially due to Program X, but also hard work, of course, across the whole group. That's really good to see. Also the financial strength has improved during the quarter. We came out of the year with a strong balance sheet, but it has further improved during the quarter with NOK 14.2 billion of gross cash at the end of the quarter. Some of that is linked to the short-term investments and also deposits for the outstanding bond, which is due for a payment in the third quarter, NOK 2.6 billion.
Thus, having then the net interest bearing debt, which is an important KPI for us, is down to NOK 4.4 billion at the end of the quarter and equity ratio going up. Also from a balance point of view, coming out of the quarter with a further strengthened balance sheet compared with where we were one quarter ago. A further deep dive into the revenue side. We see that the Norwegian part is up 6% on revenues. And this can be explained by, first of all, there is a volume impact, a reduced ASK. But that again has the positive impact on the yield development, which has a significant positive.
That's 5% on load factor, 5.2%, which then brings us to a revenue of NOK 5.1 billion in Norwegian. On top of that, obviously a nice number from Widerøe at NOK 1.8 billion, bringing the total revenue to NOK 6.9 billion. On the maybe even more interesting is to look at the EBIT bridge. How we go from a loss in first quarter of last year of NOK 568 million to a loss in Norwegian that is of NOK 259 million. Again, taking into account that the NOK 569 million is including a non-recurring gain of NOK 589 million, which is represented on the red bar there.
Obviously, we talked about both Geir and myself have talked about the macro gains, or sorry, benefit from lower ETS, strengthening of the Norwegian kroner and also the hedges representing NOK 415 million. The most important thing is to focus on the underlying improvement, NOK 432 million, which is a result of all the initiatives from Program X across the group bringing, you know, this kind of underlying benefit to our results. This is as we had expected, but it's really good to see it coming through in the numbers. Part of that, just as an example, are the recurring gains from the acquisition of 13 aircraft out of leases last year.
There are also a number of other initiatives across the group that actually adds up to NOK 432 million, obviously including also the top-line increases that we talked about on the revenue side. Also as mentioned before, Widerøe with a very nice increase, NOK 38 million from last year. We end up with a group EBIT of NOK 220 million as a loss. Again, a significant improvement from previous quarter, especially taking into account the non-recurring impact last quarter. I think we talked a lot about the P&L so far, but just to summarize, operating revenues up by 5%. Personnel expenses naturally up as always, 5% controlled.
Aviation fuel, we have the impact of the macro benefits, the hedges and also slightly lower ASK impacting that figure. We're seeing that the airport charges and ATC charges is down more than 10%. That's because of good negotiations, good results from the airports. We're seeing handling charges down partially due to lower ASK, but also good deals on the handling, good control of the cost. Technical expenses also, maintenance expenses also down. Overall, a good control of the cost and it's really good to see that this is kind of our ambitions to have a really good cost control. We see that in the numbers.
Aircraft depreciation obviously up a bit, and that's again because of the non-recurring element in Q1 last year, so it's not comparable figures. Net financial items a little bit up. That's mostly to do with unrealized losses on currencies relating to our cash balances in U.S. dollars. Overall a good performance and a profit before tax of -NOK 459 million versus -NOK 756 million lost in the same quarter last year. A few final words on the balance sheet in some more detail. We can see that the total size of the balance sheet is increasing. That's mostly to do with the cash, which is building NOK 4.1 billion of cash build during the quarter.
That's seasonal, but it's really good to see that number. It's and it's driven largely by ticket sales, but also strong operational cash flow from operations. We see the equity going up by NOK 1.4 billion. Why is that? Yes, because we have a mark to market value of our hedges of more than NOK 2 billion, and you will see that in the other comprehensive income, which for some of you is interesting, but it's a technicality. But that is booked directly towards equity, which then increased our equity ratio from the end of the year from 18.2% to 19.1%.
This is the net interest bearing debt that we have talked about a few times, NOK 4.4 billion, down from NOK 9.5 billion, driven by lower lease debt liabilities. Somewhat nearly NOK 1 billion. And then of course the buildup of cash during the quarter. No aircraft deliveries in Q1, as planned. But as Geir said, we have a fleet ready for the summer season, so we're well-positioned for that important season for us as we move forward. And again, we will pay dividend in May, subject to AGM approval. We think that will go through. We're very happy to be able to distribute some cash to our dear shareholders. Just finally on the cash flow, I think we talked a lot about that.
Starting, this is the net cash going up by NOK 4.1 billion, and that's excluding the fixed income fund of NOK 1.1 billion yearly and the deposit against the outstanding bond, which is due in the third quarter next year of NOK 1.5 billion. Ticket prepayment, NOK 3.6 billion seasonally. Strong ticket sales. Other operating activities. Investment activities largely in Widerøe, but just on a normalized level about NOK 400 million. Repayment of debt, regular debt on the aircraft, NOK 857 million. Finally, ending up with a net cash balance of NOK 11.6 billion. A strong performance on the balance sheet, good cash flow as expected. We are well-placed going into the summer season. Thank you.
Okay.
Yeah. All yours.
Okay. Let's look at the fleet for a little while, and look at the beautiful aircraft to the left with the new logo on. That is how these aircraft will look when we start, when we have really started to take delivery of brand-new 737 MAX 8 aircraft. We have 80 aircraft on order, as you all know. Two of them have been delivered, so 78 remains. The fleet schedule will be as you can see here on the bars where we have 95 aircraft during this summer, and it's increasing to 104 during the next couple of years. That is 4%-5% growth, which is not aggressive at all.
We have the optionality where we can grow more than this if we want to, by then extending the leased aircraft that are scheduled to be redelivered to their owners. And thereby we have a fantastic optionality, I love it, where we can grow in line with the markets. We will see how the market develops. Boeing as such is delivering on schedule, and that is great. The visibility towards Boeing is much better today than during the last couple of years. We have the aircraft we need, as Hans-Jørgen Wibstad also said, for the summer.
The next delivery is post the coming summer, and we are now also considering you know the mix on how we are going to finance these aircrafts, how many should we own and how many should we lease. As it looks today, we will probably own more than 50% of the fleet because it's, that is, more attractive capital cost-wise. That's the fleet. Not much news this quarter on this side. A few words on Widerøe. Operational excellence we have been through. Looking at the bookings in Widerøe for the current quarter, the second quarter is well ahead. That's what we can say year-over-year.
We have been working since we became the best friends of Widerøe to work on the cost synergies. We have taken out a lot of cost synergies already. This is an ongoing work and will be for the next year or two. We are also looking into how we can optimize the fleet utilizations between and across the two airlines. We have done and taken some steps. We will probably take more steps to make sure that we are as efficient as absolutely possible, also giving our customers a better product than what we are doing today. We are seeing the interlining traffic between Norwegian and Widerøe.
It has been growing since the day we took over Widerøe, and it continues to grow, and we are taking kind of market share on that transfer traffic. Also, again, very happy that we are finally live with the new booking platform in Norwegian. As you can see on the right-hand side, you can now book a combination of either a Norwegian on our website, not yet on the app, but that will come very soon. Norwegian has the Program X. Widerøe has something similar. They call Focus 500. 500 means that they are targeting a NOK 500 million improvement, underlying improvement in profitability, out of 2027, and that is compared to a baseline in 2024.
Looking at what they have been delivering so far, I'm very confident that the team and the colleagues in Widerøe will be able to deliver this over the next year or two. That is on top of what we are doing in Norwegian when it comes to Program X. Talking about Program X, not much news to share this quarter. As mentioned last time, we had NOK 900 million non-recurring. That's when we bought all these aircraft, and we have NOK 400 million recurring in 2025. We have said that we are gonna find another NOK 600 million effect in 2026. I have also said that we delivered close to NOK 200 million in the first quarter of 2026.
Hundred of those 200 is coming from the 400 from last year, and 100 is coming from the 600 we will find in 2026. I would say that the Program X is on target. We are delivering. That is already shown in the figures in the fourth quarter. Then let's see down the road if we can up the target of NOK 1.25 billion out of 2027. The split, you know, on the areas we are working on is shown on the right-hand side here. It is more or less the same as we showed in the last quarter. Program X has a very high focus internally, and it's now implemented throughout the whole organization.
It's also linked up to the overall strategy for the company. It's really starting to deliver. When it comes to capacity, 3% for the year, and then you can see the second, third, and fourth quarter. If you remember last guiding we gave on capacity, I think Q4 was 2%. We have increased the capacity in the fourth quarter, partly because of the contract we have with the Norwegian Armed Forces, and that's the changes we have done on capacity. We have decided to keep the guiding on CASK, meaning that we are saying low single-digit percent increase versus prior year.
That is adjusted for the one-off effect we had last year where we acquired all these aircraft, and it's listed down here. It's adjusted by NOK 858 million. That's what you have to compare it to. To summarize, I think we are in a good place. Yes, we are struggling with high fuel prices. We have increased the fares. It seems like this is sticking with the customers. They're willing to pay slightly more for a travel. We have seen a peak demand actually post the Iran situation. It seems like, you know, the south and southwest of Europe is very attractive.
I have guided and said something about both load and yield, I think as an aggregate. This summer, as per today, is actually looking better than last year. There is no signs of demand coming off. We will all have to follow how the situation in Iran evolves and how that will affect, you know, the fuel prices. We have also used this quarter to increase the hedges on currency. We have now 50% hedge approximately on U.S. dollars. And have in mind that the Widerøe is also having a quite high hedge percentage both on fuel and on currencies. Also we are both airlines, somewhat protected, you know, against what we are seeing in the market.
I think that ends the presentation, Jesper.
Yes. If we can also get Hans-Jørgen up here. You can move over there. We'll then start with some questions from the audience.
Thank. Hans Erik Jacobsen, Arctic. Several of your competitors have cut capacity due to the high fuel prices. Is this impacting you in any way?
Probably. We have seen, you know, at least, I think at least three airlines canceling. One is SAS, 1,000 routes or flights. Lufthansa, 20,000. We are seeing LOT Polish Airlines in Poland canceling. Obviously it's, you know, it's probably having an effect. Difficult to say how much. Yes.
Hans Jørgen.
Hans Jørgen Elnæs, WINAIR. If we look beyond the summer peak months into the autumn and into the winter season, 2026, 2027, in a continuous situation with a high jet fuel price, and then on top of that, a falling demand, can you give some top-line ideas on how you plan on mitigate this in terms of production, cost, revenue, and the long term?
Well, looking into, let's say, the summer is kind of taken care of, if you can say that. Into the fall, based on what we are seeing in the booking curves, it's actually quite promising what we are seeing today. Internally, we have actually upgraded our forecast for the second half just very recently. If you look at the forward curve on fuel, as you know, Hans Jørgen, it's a massive backwardation. So if you would like to today, let's say from August or September to the end of the year and to hedge the fuel, you can probably do that maybe even below $1000 a ton compared to a spot price today, I'm guessing, is somewhere between $1300 and $1400 a ton.
That is what we are up against. We are thinking about should we just put on some hedges for the fourth quarter. As you saw, we have actually increased the capacity in the fourth quarter compared to what we said a quarter ago. That should tell you that it's looking quite promising. We will probably put on more hedges for the second half this year, at least to take down the risk if this Iran situation should continue. The demand side, there is nothing wrong with the demand as it looks today. Obviously, booking curve is relatively short. Visibility into the fall is not very high.
Okay. We'll then move on to some questions from the web. We'll start with one from Ole-Mathias Nes, DNB Carnegie. Are you able to compensate for the rising fuel cost and higher ticket prices? How do you see your competitors responding?
It seems like, you know, the closest competitors are more or less in the same situation as us. Some of them might even be lower on hedge than us. It seems like most of these closest competitors have, you know, increased their fares. As mentioned here today, it seems like, you know, the passenger is actually accepting that the fares are higher and because the demand is still very strong.
Okay. We'll then move on to a couple questions from Andrew Lobbenberg, Barclays. Stronger performance in the quarter, was there anything unusual in the Q1 r-numbers, would you say? Just a question on how the PSO contracts work, is there any trigger that we get compensated for higher fuel price?
That was many questions in one. Something unusual? No. This is
Along the line of performance.
This is pure, strong, very strong performance. As mentioned, Widerøe is also quite high hedged both on fuel and on currency. Other than that, you know, if the fuel should stay at very high levels in a very long time, yes, there are clauses in the PSO contract where you can renegotiate it, but that has not been done so far.
Okay.
This is a relatively clean quarter for Widerøe.
Okay. Final question from him. What are the next steps on labor negotiations? Any big upcoming negotiations from the CBA side?
We have negotiations with our pilots both in Norway and in Denmark this coming fall.
We'll move on to some questions from Petter Nystrøm, ABG. On slide 15, you show a prepayment of NOK 3.6 billion versus NOK 3.8 billion last year, so lower prepayment this year. Any key insights to this, Hans-Jørgen, FX effect and so on?
No. Not really. It's just as planned. There is no particular reason for that variation. I think things are just as we have planned it for.
Okay.
Yeah.
Okay. I'll then ask if there's any more questions from the audience. Nope. Okay, then we'll conclude the session. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.