SAS Reports Fall in Demand in November

(31 Oct 2021) SAS has reported that in November 2020, just 331,000 passengers flew with the airline, a decline of 86% year-on-year, and down 45% when compared to October 2020.

During the month, SAS reduced its capacity by 75% compared to November 2019, and by 20% when compared to the previous month.

The load factor was 25.3%, down 45 percentage points when compared November last year and 13 percentage points down on October 2020.

The decline in passenger numbers and load factor was driven by the accelerated number of reported COVID19 cases across Europe, resulting in renewed travel restrictions followed by a significant drop in demand in international and domestic travel.

The airline has also reported an increase in the number of no-show passengers in November, and, as SAS gradually reduced its European and Scandinavian capacity, intercontinental traffic sustained by cargo revenues have a larger proportional share of the reported load factor, which impacts the comparison with the previous month negatively.

“The sharp increase in the number COVID19 cases, reintroduced travel restrictions and recommendations for social distancing, instantly impacted overall demand and willingness to travel,” said Rickard Gustafson, CEO SAS. “Even though SAS quickly responded by reducing offered capacity, unavoidable lead time from implemented crew rosters and adherence to local furlough schemes, unfortunately created some unbalance between capacity and demand during the month. However, entering into December, we have made further adjustments to adapt our capacity with available demand for Scandinavian connectivity.”

See latest Travel Industry News, Video Interviews, Podcasts and other news regarding: COVID19, SAS.