Expensive pilot strike gives blood-red figures for SAS – NRK Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
On Friday morning, SAS presented its third interim report which shows that the strike has taken a toll on the results.
The company ended the period from 1 May to 31 July with a profit before tax of minus billions.
The strike accounted for most of the deficit, a whopping 1.4 billion Swedish kroner.
– The result is characterized by the strike we have had, high oil prices and the fact that we have had challenges with the winding down of traffic throughout Europe this summer, says CEO Kjetil Håbjørg of SAS Norway to NRK.
The strike led to over 4,000 canceled flights and 380,000 passengers were affected.
Calling it “SAS’ neglected summer”
Losses are increasing compared to the same quarter last year, despite revenues far more than doubling.
The analysts expected ahead of the figures that SAS would lose SEK 1.85 billion before tax in the third quarter.
– While the competitors are safely steering out of deficit territory, blood-red numbers will still mark SAS’s high-season accounts, wrote aviation analyst Jacob Pedersen at Danish Sydbank ahead of the presentation.
The analyst expected that the income would be over ten billion kroner, but earnings presented today showed that it was far weaker, at 8.6 billion kroner.
Sharp increase in fuel costs
During the third quarter, SAS had expenses for aviation fuel of more than SEK 2.8 billion, compared to NOK 618 million in the same quarter the previous year, according to the quarterly results.
The strong growth in fuel costs comes both from the fact that jet fuel has become far more expensive, and from the fact that, despite the strike, the company had far more flights in the quarter than in the pandemic year 2021.
SAS has normally secured part of its purchase of aviation fuel. Due to the uncertainty in the market, the company writes in its quarterly report that it has not secured any of its expenditure on fuel for the next 12 months.
– I would like to point out that in this report we also present that we have made important progress in our work to transform SAS, and we are determined to succeed in this transformation, says CEO of SAS Kjetil Håbjørg.
– That means adapting to a new brand, he says.
Record profit for Norwegian
Norwegian had a pre-tax profit of just over NOK 1,248 billion in the second quarter.
Despite the record profit, the company was down more than five percent on the Oslo Stock Exchange in the morning hours on Thursday. DN writes that the result was NOK 500 million weaker than what the experts had expected.
– The result is a beautiful painting of reality because there is 2.1 billion in one-off income in the figures. That’s what aviation analyst at Danish Sydbank, Jacob Pedersen, says.
– If you correct for that, you have a deficit of NOK 740 million, he adds.