SAS Group's March 2012 traffic figures
• SAS Group carried 2.4 million passengers in March, up 4.5% corresponding to 106 000 passengers.
• The SAS Group’s capacity (ASK) increased by 3%.
• SAS Group’s traffic (RPK) increased by 9.3%.
• The passenger load factor increased by 4.2 p.u. in March to 72.3%.
Group market trends, RASK and yield development
Traffic growth was good on most routes during March as the SAS Group continued to carefully managed its capacity to improve the load factor.
During February 2012, currency adjusted yield was down by 2.9% versus previous year and RASK was unchanged. For March 2012, (change vs last year), the yield and RASK development will be somewhat weaker than February.
The response to market campaigns is still good and forward booking levels are above last year’s level, but premium bookings are weaker on certain routes. Overall, the market growth continues to be good, but remains unpredictable due to added capacity in certain markets, risk in the global economy and continued high jet fuel prices. This adds uncertainty to the yield and RASK outlook going forward. The SAS Group plans to gradually increase the capacity in line with the seasonally stronger demand and in total increase the capacity by 5-6% during 2012 as 28 new routes are planned to be launched.