Airline SAS sees first quarterly profit since 2019

Reuters Videos
1 年前

STORY: Scandinavian airline SAS posted its first quarterly pretax profit since 2019 on Friday (September 1).

It was helped by a mix of lower fuel costs, higher ticket prices and strong demand.

SAS scored a pretax profit of $41.7 million for the third quarter ended July.

It's a far better showing than a loss of close to $182 million a year earlier, and above analyst forecasts.

The news is also a positive development for a carrier that has been under bankruptcy protection since last year.

The third quarter covers much of the Nordic summer season, and is usually one of the airline's most profitable periods.

SAS passenger data showed demand for air travel has been strong this year.

That goes against predictions that soaring inflation and catastrophic weather events would put travelers off flying.

On Friday, SAS said it would ramp-up capacity this winter.

The Nordic carrier has struggled to recover after the health crisis.

And its efforts to complete a restructure quickly have been held up by labor issues, travel chaos and high costs.

SAS originally aimed to complete the restructuring by July, but that has now slipped back to the end of the year.