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(Reuters) - Norwegian Air lowered the upper end of its 2024 profit forecast range after reporting third-quarter core earnings below market expectations on Friday, and said its 2025 capacity growth would slow because of delays in Boeing aircraft delivery.
The budget airline posted an operating profit of 2.13 billion Norwegian crowns ($194.74 million), missing a company-compiled consensus of 2.33 billion crowns and falling 2% from 2.17 billion crowns a year earlier.
The budget carrier said its 2025 capacity growth was forecasted to slow from the 13% forecast for 2024.
It narrowed its 2024 operating profit guidance to a range of 2.1 billion to 2.4 billion crowns, including Wideroe.
In July, the group cut its annual forecast and said it expected an operating profit of between 2.1 billion and 2.6 billion crowns this year.
Prolonged delays in aircraft deliveries from Boeing, further exacerbated by the month-long strike by some 33,000 workers, and from Airbus have forced airlines to lease planes externally to meet capacity needs, increasing the short-term costs.
Norwegian Air, however, said it grew its capacity in the third quarter and improved load factor in both the airline and recently integrated acquisition Wideroe, a domestic rival flying smaller airplanes and serving only regional airports.
"Going forward we will continue to work on streamlining the operation and identify additional synergies with Wideroe," CEO Geir Karlsen said in a statement.
He also said the booking momentum for the seasonally weak fourth quarter was "encouraging across the group, both for leisure and business travel".
($1 = 10.9374 Norwegian crowns)
(Reporting by Agata Rybska; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Subhranshu Sahu)
