Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) has posted a net loss of SEK640 million ($75.5 million) during the first quarter of 2015. The loss has widened by 82.5% from a SEK112 million loss in the year-ago period. Losses before tax and non-recurring items had narrowed from SEK1.2 billion to SEK829 million and that unit revenue had risen 6.7% against the year-ago period, however. For the three months ended in January 2015, revenue rose 6.4% to SEK8.4 billion, but costs went up, producing an operating loss of SEK657 million. This marks a sharp swing from the SEK132 million operating profit SAS posted in the prior-year quarter.
SAS president and CEO Rickard Gustafson said: “Our unit cost increased during the first quarter when we reduced capacity to adapt to demand. This confirms the need to continue to increase cost base flexibility and further reduce costs. We have commenced the implementation of the cost measures presented earlier, which will extend across the entire organization and generate an overall earnings impact of SEK 2.1 billion with full effect in 2017.”
Traffic rose 3.2% to 5.9 billion RPKs on a 0.6% increase in capacity to 8.5 billion ASKs, producing a load factor of 68.8%, up 2.5 points. Yield rose 2.7% to SEK1.07 as RASK increased 6.7% to SEK0.74 and CASK increased 1.7% to SEK0.91. Ex-fuel CASK rose 2.9%.