The SAS Group Traffic figures January 2010

The SAS Group Traffic figures January 2010

SAS Group's January 2010 traffic figures 
• SAS Group's traffic decreased by 5.1% during January and seat capacity was
down 12.3% vs. 2009.
• SAS Group carried 1.7 million passengers in January, down 3.7% vs. 2009. 
• Passenger load factor was 65.6%, up 4.9 p.u. vs. January 2009.

Group market trends and yield development 
The yield for Scandinavian Airlines in December 2009 was down by 6.8%, as
expected and better than the development in November. For January 2010, the
change in yield is also expected to negative. The market continues to be
unpredictable and the uncertainty regarding the timing of the recovery is
considerable.

The SAS Group is currently implementing its Core SAS strategy. The strategy
includes cost reduction initiatives that from February 2010 have been increased
by SEK 2.0 bn to a total of SEK 7.3 bn as well as a 20% reduction in capacity.
The capacity reductions are almost completed. The implementation of the cost
reductions is well on track with a result impact in 2009 of SEK 2.2 bn with the
remaining result effect of SEK 5 bn. In addition, a letter of intent has been
agreed with the cabin crew and pilots union to reduce costs by an additional
MSEK 500. 

Scandinavian Airlines 
• Total number of passengers was 1.4 million during January, down by 4.4%.
• The traffic decreased by 6% and the capacity was down by 13.4%.
• The load factor developed well with an all time high load of 66.6%

The intercontinental traffic decreased 5.2% and the capacity was reduced by
13.9% resulting in a strongly improved load factor of 7.1 p.u to 78.1%. On
European routes, traffic decreased by 9.3%, but the load factor improved by 4.3
p.u. Scandinavian Airlines' market share is relatively stable on the core
European business routes. The intrascandinavian traffic decreased by 2.2% and
the capacity was reduced by 17% resulting in an improved load factor of 9.3 p.u.
The Norwegian domestic traffic was down 3.9%, but as capacity was reduced by
7.5% the load factor improved 2.2 p.u. Traffic on Swedish domestic routes was up
0.5% and the load factor increased by 3.2 p.u. 

Widerøe's traffic development
Widerøe carried 147,000 passengers in January, an increase by 1.9%. The traffic
increased by 4%. The growth is predominantly related to growth in the Norwegian
domestic network and shorter international routes. Since the capacity was
reduced by 2.3%, Widerøe's load factor improved by 3.2 p.u. to 52.5%.

Blue 1's traffic development  
Blue1's traffic increased during January by 8.1% and the capacity was increased
by 3.9%. The growth was driven by the development on European and Finnish
domestic routes. The load factor improved by 2.3 p.u. to 59% with positive 
booking development. Due to capacity reductions on shorter routes, number of
passengers decreased slightly by 0.3% over the prior year and was 95,000.

For further information Please contact VP, Head of SAS Group Investor Relations
Sture Stølen + 46 8 797 1451 sture.stolen@sas.se  Homepage: www.sasgroup.net