The SAS Group Traffic figures February 2013

SAS Group's February 2013 traffic figures
• SAS Group carried 2.0 million passengers in February, down 2.6%
• SAS Group’s capacity (ASK) was up by 1.7% and the Group’s traffic (RPK) increased by 1.1%.
• The SAS Group’s load factor decreased by 0.4 p.u. to 66.4%.
• The traffic, capacity and passengers figures are affected by the leap year in 2012 by approximately 3%.

Group market trends, RASK and yield development

The traffic growth was slightly lower in February partly due to the leap year in 2012. However, the underlying development continued to be in line with expectations.

Currency adjusted yield (Scandinavian Airlines) in January 2013 was up 3.7% versus previous year and RASK was up 5%, slightly higher than expected. For February 2013 the yield (change vs last year) is expected to be in line with previous year but the change in RASK is expected to be lower due to lower load factors.

Overall, the market demand continues to be good, although unpredictable due to risk in the global economy. Despite that yield has been somewhat more stable in recent months, the over capacity on certain routes adds uncertainty to the yield and RASK outlook going forward and the SAS Group expects a negative trend for the RASK and yield for the full year 2012/13. The capacity increase for 2012/13 is expected to be approximately 5-6%.