DALLAS - SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK) has said that it is "looking forward to a busy summer season" after announcing its second quarter (Q2) 2023 results.

Denmark, Norway and Sweden's flag carrier has continued to see passenger numbers rise. During Q2, it carried 5.4 million passengers, an increase of 36% compared to Q2 2022. SAS has been increasing its capacity for the upcoming summer to capitalise on this growing demand. Ten new routes have been added, and frequencies to some of its most popular destinations have been increased, including Mediterranean hotspots such as Alicante, Malaga and Mallorca.

Its International network continues to return to capacity. SAS has added three new routes from Aalborg (AAL), Gothenburg (GOT and Copenhagen (CPH) to New York (JFK). It has also returned to Tokyo and will bring back its CPH to Bangkok (BKK) service.

Continued Losses

Despite the positive outlook, the airline, which entered bankruptcy protection in July 2022, posted a pre-tax loss of SEK 1.41bn (US$138.9m). Total operating expenses for the period stood at SEK9.9bn (US$910m). It hopes to emerge from bankruptcy protection during the second half of this year.

In a statement, the airline's CEO, Anko van der Werff, said, "We are pleased to see that the overall underlying demand for travel was healthy during the quarter despite the (wider) economic uncertainties."

The airline was also recently given the green light to commence its equity solicitation process as part of its SAS Forward restructuring plan. SAS said it was 'now running a competitive and broad solicitation process to secure capital that will help drive our airline forward and facilitate our emergence from the Chapter 11 process.'

https://airwaysmag.com/sas-progresses-with-restructuring/

Featured Image: SAS (OY-KBO) Airbus A319 (Retrò Livery). Photo: Alberto Cucini/Airways.