– Total traffic (RPK) and capacity (ASK) increased by 5% and 5.2%, respectively.
– Passenger load factor decreased by 0.1 p.p. to 79.8%.
– Nominal yield and PASK increased by 4% and 5%, respectively.
– Currency adjusted yield and PASK changed by -1% and 0%, respectively.
Market and Capacity Development
The capacity growth in the Scandinavian market has been approximately 4-5% during 2018 vs. last year. Going forward the capacity growth is expected to accelerate even further during late fall and winter 2018/2019.
After serving the high demand for leisure travel during the summer holiday, SAS has in the second half of August started to adjust its capacity back toward more business-oriented routes.
In fiscal year 2017/2018, SAS is increasing capacity (ASK) by around 1–2%. In fiscal year 2018/2019, SAS’ indicative plan is to increase capacity (ASK) by around 1-3%, primarily due to more seats in the Airbus A320neo relative to the number of seats in aircraft being replaced.
Scheduled Traffic Development
In August the number of passengers increased by 5.1% vs. last year. SAS increased the scheduled capacity by 5.4% and the traffic increased by 6.4% vs. last year, resulting in a 0.7 p.p. increase in the load factor.
The capacity on SAS’ intercontinental routes increased by 0.7%. At the same time, the traffic increased by 5.8% vs. last year. The traffic increased by close to 8% on the Asian routes.
The traffic on SAS’ European/Intrascandinavian routes increased by 7.8% vs. last year. The growth was strongest on the European routes to/from Sweden
The traffic on SAS’ domestic routes increased by 3.3%, while the capacity was up 2.5%%, resulting in an improvement in the passenger load factor. Domestic routes in Norway had increases in both traffic and capacity while traffic increased on Swedish routes despite lower capacity.