• Total number of passengers increased by 3.3% to 2.9 million.
• Compared to the same month last year:
– Total scheduled capacity (ASK) and traffic (RPK) increased by 2.4% and 4.8%, respectively.
– Scheduled passenger load factor increased by 1.8 p.p. to 78.0%.
– Nominal yield and PASK changed by +4.9% and +7.3%, respectively.
– Currency adjusted yield and PASK changed by -2.6% and -0.4%, 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 2018/19.
After serving the high demand for leisure travel during the summer period, we have now fully adjusted capacity back to more business-oriented routes.
In fiscal year 2017/18, SAS is increasing capacity (ASK) by around 1–2%. In fiscal year 2018/19, SAS’ indicative plan is to increase capacity (ASK) by around 1-3%, primarily due to more seats in the Airbus A320neo relative to the aircraft being replaced.
Scheduled Traffic Development
In September the number of passengers increased by 4.4%. SAS increased the scheduled capacity by 2.4% and the traffic increased by 4.8%, resulting in a 1.8 p.p. increase in the load factor.
Traffic on SAS’ intercontinental routes increased by 3.2%, even though capacity decreased by 1.3%. The traffic increase was similar on both Asian and US routes.
The traffic on SAS’ European / Intrascandinavian routes increased by 6.7%. The growth was similar across routes to/from Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
The traffic on SAS’ domestic routes increased by 3.6%, while the capacity was up 1.5%, resulting in a higher passenger load factor. Both Norway and Sweden had increases in traffic, capacity and load factors on domestic routes.