Nordic airline SAS sees strong leisure travel, but cost headwinds

High costs such as jet fuel remain a headwind for Scandinavian airline SAS even as it sees leisure travel staying buoyant in 2024, its CEO told Reuters on Thursday, echoing the mixed picture painted by others in the sector. Anko van der Werff made the comments after SAS, which is grappling to exit bankruptcy protection, posted a narrower pretax loss for its fiscal Q1. "We still see a rebound in long-haul travel, and corporate is still down versus 2019, but what remains strong is leisure," van der Werff said in an interview. A post-COVID travel boom is the big hope for SAS, which entered bankruptcy protection in 2022 after years of struggling with high costs were compounded by the pandemic plunge in demand. It plans to emerge from the process in the coming months with new owners that include Air France-KLM. However, airport fees, fuel jet prices and maintenance costs still pose challenges. Rival Lufthansa on Thursday also flagged the impact of high costs. Jet fuel prices, which have put a strain on the sector's finances for several quarters, were down in SAS's November-January Q1, but van der Werff saw little cause for cheer. "It's still at about $83 right now, if you convert that with the low kronor then you are almost talking about an all-time high for us in fuel prices, so it's a challenge," he said. In January, SAS said it expected adjusted earnings before tax of between zero and 1.0b Swedish crowns ($97m) for its 2024 financial year, with revenue exceeding 48b crowns.<br/>