The SAS Group Traffic Figures July 2003

The SAS Group Traffic Figures July 2003 The SAS Group · The SAS Group transported a total of 2,5 million passengers in July 2003 vs 2,7 million in 2002, a decrease of 5,9%. · Total passenger traffic (RPK) decreased by 0,1% vs 2002. · Overall group passenger load factor decreased by 1,1 p.u to 70,6% for July 2003 vs. 2002. Market trends and yield development The traffic development in July indicates improving traffic and load factors, but a continued strong pressure on passenger yields. Traffic on North America showed passenger load factors close to 90% in July. Asian routes started to recover in June and load factors was close to 80% in July. Bookings on European routes in Scandinavian Airlines are back to 2002- year level. Braathens traffic development on Norwegian domestic routes was very weak in July with continued pressure on yields. Spanair's traffic improved in July with load factors at the same level as 2002. Indications of passenger yield development for Scandinavian Airlines in July indicate a continued pressure as a result of negative mix, a number of sales campaigns and new market initiatives. Yields for June was down 17% and 12% for the period Jan- Jun. Yields on the European routes were down 15% in June, affected by the introduction of the new low fare initiative Snowflake (8-9 p.u.). Underlying yield development is in line with previous months. The overall yield development in June and indications for July is in line with the figures reported for the previous months, but load factors and traffic development has improved. Forceful cost measures are under implementation to secure a sustained profitability level in a lower yield environment. Due to the situation with continued weak economies, the outlook remains cautious. The SAS Group will release its 2nd Quarter result on August 11 at approx 2.30 p.m. CET. Scandinavian Airlines · Scandinavian Airlines traffic (RPK) decreased by 4,9% in July 2003 compared with 2002. · Scandinavian Airlines passenger load factor increased by 0,4 p.u. to 74,5% Intercontinental traffic decreased by 0,5% in July. Traffic to/from the U.S and South East Asia have improved significantly. Scandinavian Airlines will resume its daily traffic to Beijing as from 22 August. The demand on the European routes has improved and traffic was up 4,3%. Passenger load factor on the new low price initiative, Snowflake, was above 80% in July. Intrascandinavian traffic continued to be weak. Danish domestic traffic was down mainly as a result of the discontinued Greenland route. Norwegian and Swedish domestic traffic has been reduced but with improved cabin factors. Internet Sales The proportion of Internet sales on wwww.scandinavian.net was 3,9% in June 2003 compared with 1,0% in June 2002. Spanair traffic development Spanair traffic increased on both the Domestic and the European Network. The overall ASK increased by 15,8%. Due to the strong expansion in production, the passenger load factor went down 1,1% to 65,1%. Within the Domestic network, the capacity development is concentrated on the routes to the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands. Compared to July last year, the Domestic ASK increased by 12,1% and the RPK by 10,7 %, resulting in a 0,8 percentage points lower passenger load factor. The total European market develops slower than the Domestic but Spanair managed to almost maintain last years passenger load factor despite the large increase in capacity. Braathens traffic development: Braathens scheduled passenger traffic (RPK) showed an overall increase of 9,8 % in July 2003 vs. July 2002 while the number of passengers decreased by 1,5%. Capacity (ASK) increased by 22,1 % and the passenger load factor decreased by 7,1 p.u. to 63,0%. The Norwegian domestic routes showed a 5,4% decrease in RPK while ASK increased by 15,8% in July 2003 vs. July 2002. Domestic passenger load factor decreased by 12,7 p.u. to 56,3% in July 2003 vs. July 2002. The increase in number of passengers, RPK and ASK on international routes reflects the opening of new Widerøe's traffic development Total amout of passengers rose by 21.2% (ASK +24.9%) in July compared with last year, mainly due to the introduction of new routes as from October. A significant increase in load factor is also being registered on the domestic and the intrascandinavian sector, +6.9 p.u. and +1.7 p.u. respectively, where capacity adjustments have been done during the last months, especially on the regional network in southern Norway. On the routes to the UK the load factor was negatively affected due to the adding of extra capacity. Overall load factor rose by 5.4 p.u. in July compared with last year. Air Botnia's traffic development Air Botnia's total passenger traffic (RPK) decreased with 8% compared to last year and the capacity (ASK) decreased with 3%. Air Botnia was negatively affected due to closure of the Tampere Airport during two weeks in July. ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2003/08/25/20030825BIT00240/wkr0001.doc The full report http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2003/08/25/20030825BIT00240/wkr0002.pdf The full report