Airline SAS posts Q4 loss as fuel costs, weak crown bite

Scandinavian airline SAS reported on Thursday a bigger than expected pretax loss in the fourth quarter as high fuel costs and a weak Swedish currency weighed on its results. Long-struggling SAS, which is under bankruptcy protection and bringing in new owners as part of a rescue plan, continued to underperform competitors such as Norwegian Air and British Airways-owner IAG. The Swedish-Danish carrier reported a pretax loss of 2.11b Swedish crowns ($204m) in the August-October quarter against a year-earlier 1.70b loss. "This report is a very clear testament that SAS is lacking way behind its competitors earnings wise," said Sydbank analyst Jacob Pedersen, who had expected a loss of 1.51b crowns. "Competitors all around Europe are booking record results at the moment, and here's a huge deficit ... so nothing really positive or anything to be excited about in this report," he added. Norwegian Air and IAG posted forecast-beating profits in the July-September quarter. CEO Anko van der Werff said the larger four quarter loss was primarily due to the weakness of the Swedish crown. "If there's anything we ask Santa for this year it's lower inflation and of course a stronger krona in 2024," he said, adding he still believed the airline would achieve a pretax profit for the full 2024 fiscal year.<br/>