SAS has reported a fiscal first quarter net loss of SEK 1.25 billion (US $140.3 million) or SEK 0.21 per share (US $0.019) on a year-over-year increase in revenue of 27 percent to SEK 8.96 billion (US $824.5 million).
On Thursday (June 1, 2023), SAS reported their fiscal first quarter financial results for the period ending April 30, 2023. The carrier reported a first quarter net loss of SEK 1.25 billion (US $140.3 million) or SEK 0.21 (US $0.019) per share on a year-over-year increase in revenue of 27 percent to SEK 8.96 billion (US $824.5 million). At April 30, 2023, SAS had a cash balance of SEK 5.6 billion (US $515 million). The company’s first quarter operational cash flow amounted to SEK 2.5 billion (US $230 million), up slightly from the same period last year.
In Thursday’s announcement, SAS’ President & CEO, Anko van der Werff, said,
“The summer season is approaching and we noted a continued positive evolution for passenger demand through the second quarter. 5.4 million passengers flew with SAS during the quarter, which represents an increase of 36 percent compared with the same period last year. We are pleased to see that the overall underlying demand for travel was healthy during the quarter, despite the economic uncertainties in society as a whole. We are looking forward to a busy summer season and to flying our passengers to their holiday destinations.
“During the quarter, we continued to increase our capacity for the summer and autumn adding new destinations and higher frequencies to popular destinations. We have added another 10 routes for the upcoming summer and autumn, in addition to the 20 new routes announced in the first quarter. We have inaugurated three new direct intercontinental routes, from Aalborg to New York, from Gothenburg to New York, and from Copenhagen to New York.
“We are also resuming traffic to Tokyo in June, and as announced after the quarter ended, we are bringing back a direct route from Copenhagen to Bangkok, Thailand as well as adding weekly flights to Agadir, Morocco, starting this autumn. We are making progress in our Chapter 11 process in the US and in reaching our overall targets in the SAS FORWARD plan. During the quarter, we took the next key step in SAS FORWARD – initiating the equity solicitation process. We are running a competitive and broad solicitation process to secure capital that will help drive our airline forward and facilitate our emergence from the Chapter 11 process in the US.”
During the first quarter, SAS entered into a new sale and leaseback agreement with Aviation Capital Group for 10 new Airbus A320neos. The company aims to exit the court-supervised reorganization process in the U.S. during the latter half of H2 2023. Currently, SAS expects that there will only be modest recovery for general unsecured creditors, little or no recovery for subordinated unsecured creditors, and no or very little value for existing SAS AB shareholders at the end of the Chapter 11 process.
SAS is the leading airline in Scandinavia, typically carrying over 30 million passengers annually from its main hubs in Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm to destinations in Europe, the U.S. and Asia. The company has targeted a reduction in carbon emissions by 25 percent by 2025, compared to 2005 levels, and hopes to transition to 100% biofuel for domestic flights by 2030. SAS also offers ground handling services, technical maintenance and cargo services. The carrier is a founding member of the Star Alliance, which celebrated their 25th anniversary in 2022.
Source: SAS/Cision