norwegian air shuttle asa said friday its pretax loss narrowed and revenue rose on increased passenger demand in the first quarter as coronavirus restrictions eased the lowcost carrier reported a pretax loss of 103 billion norwegian kroner 1043 million compared with a loss of nok119 billion a year earlier total revenue rose to nok192 billion from nok2553 million as it carried 22 million passengers up from 200000 a year earlier the company said passenger demand in the first half of the quarter was hit by the outbreak of the covid19 omicron variant though it recovered in the second half of february and throughout march the airline said the russian invasion of ukraine has also led to increased market volatility and rises in oil prices resulting in higher fuel prices looking ahead the company said it is well positioned to respond to increasing passenger traffic and strong pentup demand ahead of the summer season booking trends indicate customers are planning and booking travels earlier and are more willing to pay for air travel it said