SAS traffic figures March 2014
• SAS carried 2.2 million scheduled passengers in March, up 7.1%.
• The scheduled traffic (RPK) increased by 3.3%.
• The scheduled capacity (ASK) was up by 8.4%.
• The scheduled load factor decreased by 3.4 p.u. to 69.5%.
• The yield and PASK were down 9.1% and 11.9% respectively in February and currency adjusted down 6.9% and 9.7%.
Market trends, PASK and yield development
Overall, the competition and capacity in the Nordic market has intensified. Although SAS has focused on defending its yield, as expected, this development has continued in the second quarter of the 2013/2014 financial year with a negative yield/PASK and low growth. The yield pressure affects the revenues even further due to the weakening of the NOK versus last year.
Generally, demand continues to be strongest on intercontinental routes and relatively stable on routes within Scandinavia, while weaker on European routes.
In March 2014, SAS expects the change in yield and PASK vs. last year to continue to be negative.
SAS scheduled traffic development
SAS increased its scheduled capacity by 8.4% in March 2014 versus last year. Compared with previous months, the higher growth was driven by the Easter holiday that partly occurred in March 2013, when the capacity was seasonally reduced.
The growth in March 2014 was strongest in the Norwegian and the Swedish markets, with number of passengers increasing 13%. Intercontinental traffic was marginally down while capacity increased 2.9%. Traffic on European/Intrascandinavian routes increased 3.1% and capacity was up 7.4%. On domestic routes, traffic was up 9.5%.
SAS scheduled capacity increase for the financial year 2013/14 is expected to be up approximately 3-4%.