SAS blames ash cloud for second quarter loss

Scandinavian airline group SAS saw its losses narrow in the second quarter and said it would have swung back to profit if it weren't for the ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano, Associated Press Newswires reported.

SAS made a net loss of US$67.96 million in the April-June quarter, compared with a loss of $135.38 million a year earlier.

The Stockholm-based company said that it would have posted a profit of more than $54 million if the ash cloud had not paralysed air travel across Europe in April.

Revenue was $1.35 billion, down from $1.65 billion in the second quarter of last year.

SAS said it remains focused on a cost-cutting programme that has helped it achieve savings of $758 million in the past year and a half.

"During the first six months, we lowered unit cost by 6.7 percent, despite reduced capacity and the major disruptions to services," said CEO Mats Jansson, who announced last week he would leave the company in the autumn after four years in charge.

The airline has shed thousands of jobs and sold subsidiary airlines as part of a new strategy to streamline its operations and focus on the Nordic market. However, in the first half of the year SAS said it had noted a record high load factor on primarily intercontinental flights.

"Accordingly, we will now reintroduce one long-haul aircraft that will increase the number of departures to Asia and the USand, in Scandinavia, we will increase the frequency of services between the capital cities already in September," Jansson said.
(Source:www.cargonewsasia.com)