LONDON – On July 7, the Scandinavian carrier, SAS, has announced its traffic figures for June 2022. However, this could be their highest for a couple of months.

The Figures…

To start things off, SAS’ June has been yet again one of the strongest months for them since the outbreak of the Covid pandemic, with over 1.9 million passengers travelling with them – a huge 220% increase compared to June’s traffic figure in 2021.

As well as the 220% passenger count increase, SAS’ capacity has also increased by 150% compared to June 2021. June 2022 also had an 80% load factor, a 33% increase compared to June 2021.

Comparing June 2022’s figures to May 2022’s figures, passenger numbers are up by 7% with capacity also being up by 6%.

The following are the traffic figures broken down by sector for SAS –

• SAS Scheduled Traffic
  • ASK (Available Seat Kilometres) Million – 3,045 a 123.2% increase compared to June 2021.
    • November 2021 – June 2022 Figure – 19,836
  • RPK (Revenue Passenger Kilometres) Million – 2,419 a 270.1% increase compared to June 2021.
    • November 2021 – June 2022 Figure – 12,897
  • Load Factor – 79.4% a 31.5% increase compared to June 2021.
    • November 2021 to June 2022 Figure – 65%
  • No. of Passengers (000) – 1,812 a 197.5% increase compared to June 2021.
    • November 2021 to June 2022 Figure – 10,424

• SAS Charter Traffic
  • ASK (Available Seat Kilometres) Million – 386 a 1,528.3% increase compared to June 2021.
    • November 2021 to June 2022 Figure – 1,205
  • RPK (Revenue Passenger Kilometres) Million – 337 a 3,403.6% increase compared to June 2021.
    • November 2021 to June 2022 Figure – 1,006
  • Load Factor – 87.2% a 46.7% increase compared to June 2021.
    • November 2021 to June 2022 Figure – 83.5%
  • No. of Passengers (000) – 133 a 2,879.2% increase compared to June 2021.
    • November 2021 to June 2022 Figure – 360
• SAS Total Traffic (Scheduled and Charter combined)
  • ASK (Available Seat Kilometres) Million – 3,431 a 147.2% increase compared to June 2021.
    • November 2021 to June 2022 Figure – 21,040
  • RPK (Revenue Passenger Kilometres) Million – 2,755 a 315.6% increase compared to June 2021.
    • November 2021 to June 2022 Figure – 13,903
  • Load Factor – 80.3% a 32.5% increase compared to June 2021.
    • November 2021 to June 2022 Figure – 66.1%
  • No. of Passengers (000) – 1,946 a 217.1% increase compared to June 2021.
    • November 2021 to June 2022 Figure – 10,784

Commenting on their announcement, SAS’ President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Anko van der Werff, has said, “Overall ticket sales have been positive in June, even if the whole aviation ecosystem still faces challenges in the global ramp-up.”

“The notice of strike from the SAS Scandinavia pilots’ unions started impacting our bookings toward the end of the month. Our customers who for a long time have been longing to travel, had their plans disrupted in the middle of summer peak season, when we were looking forward to flying passengers.”

“We continue our SAS FORWARD restructuring plan in which all stakeholders need to participate in order to secure SAS’ financial stability. To successfully continue the transformation of SAS we filed for Chapter 11 in the US on July 5. Update on the progress will be published once available.”

Overall…

With both a strong May and June, SAS was readying itself for a very promising summer season with a restructuring plan to future-proof its business. However, with the pilot strikes looming, which could potentially harm at least 50% of SAS’ operations, their summer is looking to be even more problematic than they originally anticipated.

It will be interesting to see what effect the strike has on SAS over the coming months and where they will end up with their SAS FORWARD restructuring plan.