SAS' (aske)trafikktall for april 2010

[FlightDeck]

Også SAS ble sterkt påvirket av vulkanen på Island.

The SAS Group Traffic figures April 2010

SAS Group's April 2010 traffic figures
· The traffic development in April was significantly affected by the closure of major parts of the European airspace during almost one week in April due to the volcanic ashes.
· Adjusted for the closure of the traffic, the underlying development in April showed a small growth in passenger numbers, a close to stable traffic development and reduced capacity by approximately 9%.
· SAS Group's traffic (RPK) decreased by 24.3% during April and seat capacity (ASK) was down 21.2% vs same period in 2009.
· SAS Group carried 1.6 million passengers in April, down 28.1% vs. same period in 2009.
· Passenger load factor was 69.6%, down 2.9 p.u. The negative effect from the ash cloud is estimated to 9 p.u.

Group market trends and yield development
The currency adjusted yield for Scandinavian Airlines in March 2010 was down by 10.1% but RASK was up 3.1% due to the improvement of the load factor. The yield outlook for April is more uncertain due to the closure of the airspace following the volcanic ashes in Iceland. However, the change in yield is expected to be negative. The effect from the volcanic ashes has affected bookings also for May and June, but it is too early to assess the effects on traffic. Bookings are now almost back to normal levels. The market continues to be unpredictable and the uncertainty regarding the timing of a recovery is considerable.

SAS estimates the negative impact from the ash cloud on earnings up to May 7 to be between MSEK 650 and 700. The estimate includes among other things lost bookings up to May 7, extra costs for alternative transportation and reimbursements to our customers such as hotel accommodation expenses.

Scandinavian Airlines
· Total number of passengers was 1.3 million during April, down 28.1% and significantly effected by the closure of the traffic due to the volcanic ashes in Iceland.
· The traffic decreased by 24.2% and capacity was reduced by 21.1%
· The load factor decreased by 2.9 p.u. to 70.5%.

The intercontinental traffic was least affected as some flight could be performed as normalTraffic decreased with 9.8% while capacity was down 15% resulting in an improved load factor of 4.9 p.u to 84.9%. On European routes, traffic decreased by 32.8% and load factor decreased by 5.4 p.u. to 66.7%. The intrascandinavian capacity decreased by 17.3% and traffic was down 27%. The Norwegian domestic traffic was down 28.7% and capacity was down by 14.8%. Traffic on Swedish domestic routes was down 29.9% and the capacity decreased 23.9%.

Widerøe's traffic development
Widerøe carried 125.000 passengers in April, down 24.9% vs last year. The overall load factor was down by 8 p.u. The traffic was affected by the volcanic ashes from Iceland. In total Widerøe cancelled 1348 scheduled flights, and had a cancellation rate of 16.9% for the whole month.

Blue 1's traffic development
Blue1's traffic decreased 24.4% during April and capacity was down 23.8%, mainly due to the closure of the air space in Europe and Finland during parts of the month. The number of carried passengers as a result decreased by 32.7%. The passenger load factor was down 0.5 p.u. albeit there were higher levels of no shows immediately after the opening of the air space.

Alle detaljer finnes her: http://feed.ne.cision.com/wpyfs/00/00/00/00/00/11/3C/29/wkr0011.pdf

[apron]

..Var det ikke så at SAS fikk ett ekstra døgn uten zone 2 trafikk da prosedyrene ikke var godkjent.
Tipper det også bidro til at reduksjonen ble 28%..

[FlightDeck]

Da har det også kommet en pressemelding med kommentarer fra Mats Jansson:

The ash cloud substantially affected SAS Group traffic in April. - Estimated negative earnings impact of MSEK 650-700 up to May 7

The closure of the Scandinavian airspace due to the ash cloud from April 15 to 19 significantly affected the traffic figures for April. As from April 20, SAS gradually returned to normal operations. Bookings in May and June have also been affected, but to a much lesser extent. The situation in the rest of Northern Europe has been similar and the disruptions represent a major hit to the entire aviation industry.

SAS estimates the negative impact on earnings up until May 7 to be between MSEK 650 and 700. The estimate includes lost bookings up to May 7, additional costs for alternative transportation and also reimbursements to our customers such as hotel accommodation and meal expenses etc.

`In addition to the damage inflicted to our passengers, the aviation industry has in total lost more than SEK 25 billion, due to the closure of the airspace. This is a natural disaster that is not covered by insurance in our industry. Together with our industry organization AEA, we continue to work for compensation from EU and the Scandinavian governments based on a model that avoids distortion of competition', says Mats Jansson, CEO and President.

In April, the number of passengers amounted to 1.6 million compared with 2.2 million during April last year. The estimated effect of the traffic disruptions exceeds 0.6 million lost passengers, which indicates a small underlying passenger increase.

The yield, which is a measure of the average ticket price, fell in March by 10.1%, compared to March last year, which was more than offset by the improving load factor. This resulted in an improved RASK, which is the unit revenue, of 3.1%. There are uncertainties regarding the yield development in April due to the disruptions, but it is expected to be lower than the same period last year.

`It is a positive sign that the number of passengers and in particular the load factor continues to improve, when excluding effects from the traffic disruptions. This provide evidence that our Core SAS strategy is providing results, as well as certain signs of improvements in the aviation business cycle', says Mats Jansson.

[LN-KGL]

Jeg tror SAS Group har overestimert askeproblemene. Arlanda har en nedgang på de fire første månedene i år på -3,7% i forhold til i fjor og SAS Group har -7,9%. Divergensen mellom disse er 4,2 pp. Tilsvarende tall for de tre første månedene var henholdsvis +4,0% og -0,2%, også her en divergens på 4,2 pp. Med det kan vi vel på den ene siden at Janssons underliggende vekst ikke er der, og deler av "askeeffekten" egentlig skyldes påsken. For enkeltmåneden er en nedgang på 28%, spesielt når bare deler av påsken ligger innenfor måneden i år, mens det i fjor var hele påsken i april. Det er også en betydelig forskjell på -28% og -8%.

[LN-MOW]

Ja, SAS har en lang og god tradisjon med å male på litt ekstra når det er negative ting som annonseres. Spesielt hvis det er lønnsforhandlinger i kjømda ....