“The first quarter of the fiscal year is the seasonally weakest and SAS posted income before tax and nonrecurring items of MSEK -829. This is an earnings improvement of MSEK 340 and an increase in unit revenue of 6.7% compared with the year-earlier period, which confirms that our commercial focus on Scandinavia’s frequent travelers is generating effect. We see continued favorable passenger growth, improved load factor and we also have more travelers in SAS Plus, which has resulted in a positive trend in unit revenue for the quarter. However, 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.
In parallel with SAS continuously developing the customer offering, we are maintaining a high pace of change to meet the new industry standard. 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. We are working intensively to increase flexibility in our production model to adapt production to a greater extent to seasonal variations. We are strengthening the offering to our frequent travelers and in February, the first long-haul aircraft with the new cabin interior was put in operation, while a new improved service concept was introduced in SAS Business.
We have an exciting year ahead of us and look forward to the delivery of the first new Airbus A330E long-haul aircraft and the opening of the new direct route between Stockholm and Hong Kong,” says Rickard Gustafson, SAS President and CEO.
