Norwegian Air's December capacity down, boosting earnings

Norwegian Air cut its capacity for a third consecutive month in December, removing loss-making routes as part of its plan to regain profitability, the budget carrier's traffic data showed on Tuesday.

Overall capacity, a measure of distance flown and the number of seats available (ASK), fell 25% year on year in December, while analysts in a Reuters poll had on average expected a 24% drop.

But the airline's yield - income per passenger carried and kilometre flown - rose 14% to 0.43 Norwegian crown ($0.0489), beating a 0.41 crown forecast. ($1 = 8.7955 Norwegian crowns)