SAS shares plummet as airline announces heavy losses
Shares in the troubled Scandinavian airline SAS plunged Thursday after it announced further heavy losses for its second quarter despite a jump in passenger numbers.
The airline posted a net loss of 1.5 billion Swedish kronor ($138 million) for the three months of February to April, roughly the same as in the period
last year. Passenger numbers were nonetheless up 36 percent to 5.4 million as the airline tries to reach agreements on debt restructuring with creditors in the framework of a US Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.
Revenue climbed 27 percent in the quarter to 8.9 billion kronor.
"We are pleased to see that the overall underlying demand for travel was healthy during the quarter, despite the economic uncertainties in society as a whole," SAS said, forecasting a "busy" summer travel season.
But the airline suffered a blow last month when the EU General Court overturned the European Commission's approval of huge government bailouts for
SAS as well as Germany's Lufthansa, granted to help them survive the Covid-19 pandemic -- a decision the airline plans to contest.
Shares in SAS, in which the Swedish and Danish governments hold stakes, tumbled 9.6 percent on the Stockholm stock exchange to 0.35 kronor in afternoon trading.
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The airline posted a net loss of 1.5 billion Swedish kronor ($138 million) for the three months of February to April, roughly the same as in the period
last year. Passenger numbers were nonetheless up 36 percent to 5.4 million as the airline tries to reach agreements on debt restructuring with creditors in the framework of a US Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.
Revenue climbed 27 percent in the quarter to 8.9 billion kronor.
"We are pleased to see that the overall underlying demand for travel was healthy during the quarter, despite the economic uncertainties in society as a whole," SAS said, forecasting a "busy" summer travel season.
But the airline suffered a blow last month when the EU General Court overturned the European Commission's approval of huge government bailouts for
SAS as well as Germany's Lufthansa, granted to help them survive the Covid-19 pandemic -- a decision the airline plans to contest.
Shares in SAS, in which the Swedish and Danish governments hold stakes, tumbled 9.6 percent on the Stockholm stock exchange to 0.35 kronor in afternoon trading.
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