The global outbreak of Covid-19 has decimated the latest traffic figures from Norwegian.

The company experienced a dramatic drop in demand last month following government-imposed travel restrictions and a general travel decline.

Norwegian responded to this global change in demand and adapted its flight schedule several times during the month.

The first step was to cut approximately 15 per cent of planned capacity on March 10th, this was then re-evaluated and adjusted to up to 85 per cent of planned capacity from March 16th with most cancellations starting from March 25th.

Capacity was 40 per cent lower than planned while the flights that were operated had a load factor of 72 per cent, down 13.8 percentage points compared to the same month previous year.

Compared to the same period last year total capacity decreased by 53 per cent, while total passenger traffic decreased by 60 per cent.

The total number of customers carried in March was 1,153,283, a decrease of 61 per cent.

In March, Norwegian operated 77 per cent of scheduled flights, multiple rescue flights and continued to maintain a critical regional flying infrastructure.

Jacob Schram, chief executive of Norwegian, said: “The speed of the Covid-19 global outbreak throughout March had a profound impact on the entire Norwegian network as cancellations, in line with global travel advice and falling demand, were implemented throughout the month.

“Norwegian operated multiple rescue flights on behalf of the government to ensure that thousands of Scandinavian passengers could safely return home.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our dedicated colleagues, our customers and members of the public for their continued support.

“We will provide further financial and business updates to the Oslo Børs when it is appropriate to do so.”

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