The accelerated number of COVID-19 cases in October have led to reinforced restrictions across Europe, which naturally impacts the willingness to travel negatively.
The ongoing pandemic continues to severely impact SAS and reported traffic figures for October are broadly in line with September this year.
During the month, SAS carried just over 0.6 million passengers, down 78.7% compared to last year. Similarly, SAS reduced its capacity by 73.3% year-over-year. Compared to the previous month, demand, capacity and load factor remained broadly unchanged.
“Reported traffic is close to what we experienced in September and demand continues to be stronger for domestic than for European and Intercontinental travel, which is also reflected in the network and schedule we offer. Regretfully, the accelerated number of COVID-19 cases in October have led to reinforced restrictions across Europe, which naturally impacts the willingness to travel negatively. Even though we expect the low demand environment to be maintained for the next few months, our view remains firm that the ramp-up phase for the airline industry will continue until 2022 with demand returning to levels before the pandemic a few years thereafter” says Rickard Gustafson, CEO SAS.
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
