Airline SAS posts smaller quarterly loss, optimistic for the summer

By Marie Mannes

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Scandinavian airline SAS on Friday posted a slightly smaller first-quarter loss before tax than a year earlier, as bookings for the quarter and the summer months were better than expected.

Chief Executive Anko van der Werff told Reuters he was optimistic that the summer would go better than last year, when the airline was hit by week-long strikes and airports struggled with labour issues and travel chaos.

SAS said it was ramping up hiring to meet the higher demand it expected in the summer. The CEO did however say the situation was still complicated, with airports already announcing planned capacity caps.

"At the same time, both Airbus and Boeing are still dealing with delivery delays. So we are dealing with that the entire ecosystem hasn't ramped up yet to a full 100%," the CEO said.

"But really, it will be a very different and much better experience for travellers than that last year."

SAS also warned in its quarterly report that economic uncertainties with increasing interest rates and cost inflation were likely to affect the industry.

As a result of improved demand, SAS repeated that it expects to return to positive earnings before tax (EBT) in fiscal 2024. For fiscal 2026 it predicted profit would be above its previous assessment from September of around 3 billion-4 billion crowns.

Part-owned by the governments of Sweden and Denmark, SAS predicted fiscal 2023 revenue of around 40 billion crowns.

Its 2.49 billion crown loss for the November-January quarter was slightly smaller than its loss before tax of 2.60 billion crowns a year earlier.

The airline reiterated that it intends to exit the Chapter 11 U.S. bankruptcy protection it entered last year in the second half of 2023.

SAS, which has seen its share price plummet, has renegotiated contracts with many of its aircraft lessors as part of big cost cuts.

($1 = 10.4239 Swedish crowns)

(Reporting by Marie Mannes and Anna Ringstrom; Editing by Essi Lehto, Jason Neely and Jan Harvey)