In October 2018, SAS carried 2.6 million scheduled passengers – an increase of 1.4% compared to the same month in 2017. Capacity (ASK) and traffic (RPK) declined by 0.6% and 1.0%, respectively. Passenger load factor declined by 0.3 percentage points to 74.6%. Nominal yield and PASK increased by 6.6% and 6.2%, respectively. Currency adjusted yield and PASK increased by 1.3% and 0.9%, respectively.
SAS says that it plans to increase capacity by around 2% in fiscal year 2018/19, primarily due to more seats in the Airbus A320neo.
Intercontinental traffic declined 1.5%, but passenger load factor improved as capacity was down 2.5%. The traffic decrease was somewhat larger on Asian routes compared to US routes.
Europe/Intrascandinavia traffic and capacity declined by 1.5% and 0.5%, respectively. Traffic increased on Intrascandinavian routes but decreased on European routes.
Domestic traffic increased 2.2% on the back of a 3.2% increase in capacity, resulting in a lower passenger load factor. The pattern was similar in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.