SAS Group's July 2012 traffic figures
• The SAS Group’s load factor improved by 0.5 p.u. in July and reached a record 86.1%
• SAS Group carried 2.3 million passengers in July, up 5.6%.
• SAS Group’s capacity (ASK) increased by 7.0% and the Group’s traffic (RPK) increased by 7.7%.
Group market trends, RASK and yield development
Traffic growth was good on most routes during July and especially on European routes as the Group increased its seasonal capacity to leisure destinations during the summer.
Currency adjusted yield (SAS) in June was down by 2.1% versus previous year and RASK was down 1.3% in line with earlier guidance. For July 2012 both yield and RASK (change vs last year) are expected to be slightly positive.
The response to market campaigns is still good and forward booking levels are well above last year’s level. Overall, the market growth continues to be good, but remains unpredictable due to added capacity in certain markets, risk in the global economy and high jet fuel prices. This adds uncertainty to the yield and RASK outlook going forward. The SAS Group plans to increase the capacity by approximately 4-5% in 2012 vs 2011 as 38 new routes will be launched throughout the year.
SAS Group product and news update
• Scandinavian Airlines commences flight between Copenhagen-Billund in mid August.
• Star Alliance received the best alliance title from Skytrax World Airline Awards.
Scandinavian Airlines traffic development
• Number of passengers increased by 4.8% to 2.0 million.
• Traffic increased by 7.8% and capacity was up 7.1%.
• The load factor was up 0.6 p.u. to 86.8%.
Scandinavian Airlines’ traffic grew slightly more than the capacity increase during the month. The traffic growth was primarily driven by strong growth (12.1%) on Intrascandinavian/ European routes as the network was more adapted to leisure destinations in southern Europe during the summer peak. Traffic on intercontinental routes grew only 2.8% while capacity was increased 3.9% in July. The intercontinental traffic program was negatively affected by unusual weather and technical events that resulted in a number of unplanned cancellations. The domestic traffic had a stable growth of 6.5% and an improved load factor.
Widerøe traffic development
Widerøe carried 227,000 passengers in July, up by a strong 13.9%. The growth was positively affected by the introduction of a new route to/from Florø. Traffic also increases on existing routes all over the network, both domestic and international. The capacity was up 6.3% in excess of the traffic growth of 3.4% resulting in a lower total load factor of 1.9 p.u. The shift in capacity from longer intra-scandinavian routes to shorter domestic results in slightly lower load factors, but affects passenger growth positively.
