Passengers bump up Q3 profits for Norwegian

OSLO, Norway -- Norwegian Air Shuttle, one of Europe's fastest-growing airlines, has posted a 27 percent increase in third-quarter net profits on the back of a significant increase of passengers.

Thursday's report showed the company made a net profit of 628 million kroner ($110 million), up sharply from the 495 million kroner recorded in the same three months a year ago. Last year's results were somewhat weighed down by currency fluctuations related to loans taken to upgrade its fleet with new carriers.

Revenues shot up to 4.22 billion kroner from 3.38 billion kroner, following a near 13 percent passenger increase.

Norwegian's CEO Bjoern Kjos called it the "best ever result," saying "load factor is high and the growth in passenger traffic is very good."