SAS Group's January 2012 traffic figures

 • SAS Group carried 1.9 million passengers in January, up 5.3%.

• The SAS Group applied careful capacity management in the seasonally weak month of January and decreased capacity (ASK) by 1%.

• SAS Group’s traffic (RPK) increased by 0.4%.

• The passenger load factor increased by 1 p.u. in January to 64.9.

Group market trends, RASK and yield development

Traffic growth continued to be good on short and medium haul routes during January as the SAS Group carefully managed its capacity to improve the load factor.

During December 2011, currency adjusted yield was down by 2.3% versus previous year and RASK was down 6.3% due to lower load factor. For January 2012, (change vs last year), the yield will be in line with December while RASK is expected to improve.

The response to market campaigns is still good and forward booking levels are above last year’s level, but premium bookings are weaker. Overall, the market growth continues to be good, but remains unpredictable due to added capacity in certain markets, risk in the global economy and continued high jet fuel prices. This adds uncertainty to the yield and RASK outlook going forward. Following the reduced capacity in January, the SAS Group plans to gradually increase the capacity in line with the seasonally stronger demand during the first quarter and in total increase the capacity by 5-6% during 2012.