LONDON – Earlier this week saw, SAS announce a 50% increase in passenger numbers for December 2022 compared to the same period in 2021.
SAS handled 1.47 million passengers in December, which represents an increase of 47.5%, with its load factors increasing to 71.7%.
van der Werff: Continuing The Positive Trend…
Commenting on the numbers was SAS CEO Anko van der Werff, who emphasized positive messaging in the wake of financial adversity.
“Continuing the positive trend observed during autumn, December traffic came in 1.5 million passengers, an almost 50% increase compared to December 2021.”
“We are concentrating on ramping up ahead of the expected busy summer season.”
“During the month, we released our extended summer program, with 20 new routes and more than 5000 weekly flights to more than 100 destinations”.
Numbers Set to Rise?: 5,000 Weekly Flights In Summer 2023…
Passenger numbers are expected to rise in the Summer of 2023, with the airline expected to operate 5,000 weekly flights.
The new summer program includes more than 200 routes.
The number of flights will continue to rise on major domestic, Scandinavian, and international routes as demand for travel is expected to continue to increase.
In light of strong customer demand for particularly popular destinations, SAS’ overall capacity to the Mediterranean is set to exceed pre-pandemic levels.
SAS is adding flights to long-time favorites in Spain from all three Scandinavian capitals, as well as a fourth destination in Croatia with the start of a Copenhagen-Zadar service.
The summer traffic program includes a major capacity expansion to Italy.
SAS will have up to 156 weekly flights on sale between Scandinavia and Italy, with the new service from Oslo to Catania, Florence, and Venice, as well as from Bergen to Milan.
In addition, SAS is adding flights to existing destinations such as Milan, Bologna, and Rome.
Milan will be served up to three times daily from Copenhagen, up to twice daily from Stockholm, and daily from Oslo.
The following new routes are introduced as part of the summer 2023 program:
| Oslo | Antalya, Florence, Catania, Venice, Larnaca and Stuttgart |
| Bergen | Milan and Nice |
| Stockholm | Antalya, Ibiza, Montpellier and Vaasa |
| Copenhagen | Antalya, Haugesund, Newquay/Cornwall, Larnaca, Porto, Zadar and JFK/New York |
| Trondheim | Haugesund |
Overall…
It remains clear that SAS is trying to press ahead with plans for growth and, subsequently, success off the back of restructuring.
Providing that the airline can get through this difficult period of financial downturn, then the Summer of 2023 should go a long way in helping the process.
All eyes will be on SAS to see how they will perform over the Summer season and whether they can also experience any success going into the Winter 2023/24 program.
There has been a lot of criticism over CEO Anko van der Werff’s management of the airline, but if his plans work, then this could remove a lot of that criticism that started in his days at Avianca.
But for now, all we can do is sit back and wait to see what happens.
