Norwegian Air Service carried over 1.3m passengers in March 2012 – up 18% on the same period last year. Load factor was 78% and RASK was up 5%. This airline is due to receive some 13 new aircraft in 2012 and looks all set to take-on Easyjet and Ryanair at the top of the low cost tree in Europe but to do so it must expand further into central/Northern Europe, that could mean a price war. Norwegian Air Service transported close to 16 million passengers in 2011 on 294 routes to more than 114 destinations and employs approximately 2,500 people.