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SAS close to being dethroned despite financial turnaround
Christian Wenande
June 22nd, 2015
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This article is more than 9 years old.
Norwegian closing in on the lion’s share of passengers
Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) has revealed a stunning turnaround for the second quarter, posting a profit of 226 million kroner.
The result is a significant improvement compared to the same period last year when the airline presented a loss of 648 million kroner.
“This improvement was primarily driven by a positive trend for unit revenue, which climbed 6.8 percent. Income before tax was positively impacted by the divestment of two slot pairs at London Heathrow,” said Rickard Gustafson, the president and CEO of SAS.
“SAS is investing in the future, and the new, simplified collective agreements for pilots create the prerequisites for future expansion and, as a consequence, SAS is increasing its long-haul fleet by three additional aircraft.”
READ MORE: Q1 losses not as bad as anticipated for SAS
Norwegian closing in
But despite the positive results in the financial arena, SAS is on the cusp of being dethroned as the crown jewel of the Scandinavian skies.
According to the Norwegian newspaper Aftensposten, rival airline Norwegian could take over SAS’s position as the Scandinavian airline with the most passengers.
Norwegian continues to grow and purchase new aircraft and SAS only transported 50,000 more passengers than Norwegian in the month of May.
But despite potentially losing the ‘biggest in Scandinavia’ title the airline has held since it was founded almost 60 years ago in 1947, SAS isn’t concerned.
“It means nothing to us. Being the biggest is a phenomenon that only the media is concerned with,” Eivind Roald, the deputy head of sales and marketing, told TV2 News.
“The most important thing for us is continuing to be profitable. And then we consider growth.”
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