Coronavirus: SAS expects losses of 200 million

SAS expects to lose around SEK 200 million this winter on flights canceled due to the virus outbreak.

This is stated in the report for the first quarter of the year, which was presented on Wednesday.

SAS flies around 250,000 passengers to and from Shanghai and Beijing each year. The loss of revenues from cancelled flights in February and March is expected to be around SEK 200 million.

In the quarterly report, the airline points out that revenues are increasing, but this is counteracted by, among other things, negative currency effects and restructuring to a new accounting standard. The loss before tax increases from SEK 576 million in the first quarter last year to 1,087 million kroner in the same period this year.

“The Swedish and Norwegian krone are still weak against the US dollar and the euro. This increases our costs and also the price levels for customers traveling abroad. On the other hand, the recent decline in fuel prices is a positive development,” said CEO Rickard Gustafson.

He emphasized that the market is challenging but that the number of passengers has increased by 1.5 per cent. The market share in Scandinavia has increased by 1.6 percentage points to 29 percent.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today