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SAS Traffic Reports: The SAS Group Traffic figures May 2009

Dépèche transmise le 5 juin 2009 par Business Wire

STOCKHOLM, Sweden--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Regulatory News:

SAS Group's (STO:SAS) (OSE:SASNOK) May traffic figures

• SAS Group's traffic decreased by 18.1 % during May and seat capacity was down 16.7% vs. 2008.
• SAS Group carried 2.2 million passengers in May, down 17.1% vs. 2008.
• Total passenger load factor in May was down by 1,2 p.u. to 71.5%.

Group market trends and yield development The yield for Scandinavian Airlines in April was down by 11.7%, lower than expected. For March/April the yield was down by 1.7%. For May 2009, the change in yield is expected to be negative compared to last year due to falling demand as a consequence of the global recession. The market is characterized by lower demand due to significantly weaker macroeconomic development in Scandinavia and worldwide. The market is most unpredictable and the uncertainty regarding the timing of the recovery is considerable. SAS cannot rule out additional actions to further offset the negative market environment.

The SAS Group is currently implementing a new strategic approach – Core SAS - to secure a future profitable SAS. The strategy includes cost initiatives of approximately SEK 4.0 billion and approx. 20% (ASK) capacity reduction. The implementation is well on track. The restructuring cost will increase substantially in relation to what has been guided previously for 2009 due to earlier phase out of aircraft, higher early retirement ratio than expected and redelivery costs of leased aircraft. SAS Scandinavian Airlines • Total number of passengers was 1.9 million during May, a decrease by 18,6%. • Traffic decreased by 19.0% in May. • The load factor decreased by 1.3 p.u. during May.

The intercontinental traffic decreased 21.3% and the load factor decreased 4.2 p.u. to 78.9% as the weaker global economy affects long haul flights relatively more than short haul. Traffic on European routes decreased by 17.4% in line with the capacity decrease. These capacity reductions are in line with the Core SAS Strategy. The intrascandinavian traffic decreased 15.9%. The Swedish and Norwegian domestic traffic decreased by 21.5% and 17.8% respectively.

Widerøe's traffic development Widerøe carried 173.000 passengers i May, down 0.8% due to the slowdown in the economy. The capacity was down with 4.7%, resulting in an improved overall load factor by 1.9 p.u. to 63.1%.

Blue 1's traffic development The total number of passengers in May was 132 000, down 12.9 % vs last year. The passenger load factor in May was 66.8 % up 0.6 p.u. vs last year and an improvement of 1.8 p.u. compared with April 2009 .The number of passengers on the Finnish domestic routes decreased by 17.9%, but the load factor improved by 3.9 p.u

Homepage: www.sasgroup.net

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