Scandinavian airline SAS plans to ramp-up winter capacity this year, the company said on Friday (Sept 1) as it posted its first quarterly pre-tax profit since late 2019, aided by lower fuel costs, higher ticket prices and strong demand.

The airline, which has been under bankruptcy protection since July 2022, swung to a pre-tax profit of 464 million Swedish kronor (S$57.1 million) for its third quarter to July 31 from a 1.99 billion kronor loss a year earlier.

Sydbank analyst Jacob Pedersen, one of the few to still forecast SAS’ quarterly earnings, said he had expected a profit of 326 million kronor.

The third quarter, covering much of the Nordic summer season, is usually one of the airline’s most profitable periods of the year, along with its August to October fourth quarter.

“We also noted strong ticket sales throughout the third quarter, indicating a healthy underlying demand for travel despite a more uncertain economic outlook in society as a whole,” CEO Anko van der Werff said in a statement.

The long-struggling Nordic carrier has struggled to recover after the Covid-19 pandemic, while labour issues, travel chaos and high costs have hampered efforts to complete its restructuring process swiftly.

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SAS originally aimed to complete the restructuring by July, but the target has now slipped back to the end of the year.

Demand for air travel has been strong this year, SAS passenger data shows, defying predictions that soaring inflation and catastrophic weather events would deter travellers. REUTERS