Airline SAS Bounces Back To Profit In Q3

MALIN RISING

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Scandinavian airline group SAS AB said Thursday it bounced back to a profit in the third quarter, helped by cost cuts and lower prices on fuel.

The company, based in Stockholm, reported a third-quarter net profit of 152 million kronor ($21.5 million), up from a loss of 1.9 billion kronor a year earlier.

The improvement was mainly due to lower operating expenses and cheaper fuel. The cost for jet fuel was about 1 billion kronor lower in the third quarter compared with the same period last year, adjusted for currency changes, SAS said.

The result was also boosted by a gain of 427 million kronor from the sale of SAS's U.K. subsidiary British Midland.

Revenue for the quarter fell by 17 percent to 11.1 billion kronor from 13.3 billion in the same period in 2008.

The profit beat analysts' expectations while revenue was somewhat weaker than expected, according to consensus figures by SIX estimates.