Promises solid SAS profit in 2026

Promise solid SAS profit in 2026 In 2026, SAS expects to leave with more than 4 billion Swedish kroner in profit But today's 23,200 Norwegian shareholders are unlikely to get any pleasure from it.

SAS is currently under bankruptcy protection in the USA The airline hopes to end that process, called Chapter 11, in the second half of this year.

The aim is to emerge as a financially stronger company SAS has now updated its forecasts for how the financial results will improve, if they succeed in their plan.

It is only in the financial year 2025/2026 that the airline will really get air under its wings That financial year ends on 31 October 2026.

By then, SAS predicts a turnover of over SEK 50 billion and a profit before tax of more than SEK 4 billion It now corresponds to approximately the same in Norwegian kroner.

In its latest update, SAS does not specifically mention the figures 50 billion or 4 billion But it follows logically from the fact that they are now revising the previous forecast for 2025/2026, from September last year, of then 49 billion in turnover and 3–4 billion in profit.

- Feels like covid is over If SAS is successful, operating income in 2025/2026 will increase by more than 50 per cent compared to the last annual accounts It will be 7 per cent above operating income in the last financial year before the pandemic hit.

See also the table below here - Almost 50 per cent more passengers flew with us in the 1st quarter compared to the same quarter last year.

And the booking for the summer looks good It feels like the market is back and that covid is over, says SAS CEO Anko van der Werff to E24.

He adds: - Therefore, the prospects in the longer term are better "Almost" debt-free in autumn 2026 If SAS manages to achieve such figures, it will give an operating margin in 2025/2026 of 7–8 per cent.

The net debt of SAS has increased by nearly SEK 7 billion in the past year It was close to SEK 34 billion at the end of January.

However, SAS' cost-cutting plan, called SAS Forward, aims to convert SEK 20 billion in debt into equity In addition, SAS will cut annual costs by SEK 7.

5 billion If SAS succeeds, the company's goal is to be "almost" net debt-free in November 2026.

Warn the shareholders - again It is, however, unlikely that today's 23,000 Norwegian shareholders in SAS will get as much pleasure from a successful Chapter 11 process In recent months, SAS has reiterated that it cannot guarantee that current shareholders will be allowed to join when SAS leaves American bankruptcy proceedings in the autumn.

The same is being said now in connection with Friday's presentation of the results for the months November 2022 - January 2023 - We cannot give any guarantees to the existing shareholders, says the SAS boss to E24.

Small shareholders can therefore be left with nothing Instead, it is likely that the American investment company Apollo and the Danish state will take control upon departure from Chapter 11 in the USA.

Unsecured creditors face big losses SAS has based its warning on two factors One is that the unsecured creditors must expect to take very large losses on their loans.

Then the shareholders cannot escape cheaper The second is that the legal process in the United States must be followed by similar processes in other countries.

SAS has so far not communicated why the latter may affect what the shareholders can hope to be left with But there are probably strict rules in some countries for what shareholders can get when creditors have to take big losses.

SAS's warnings that shareholders could lose everything have become more frequent the further into the Chapter 11 process the airline has moved Hello Spain! SAS' new strategy for regaining profitability in the next few years can be briefly summarized as major cost cuts, investment in the leisure market to Southern Europe and less focus on business travellers.

The airline believes that the demand for short leisure trips will reach the levels from before the pandemic sometime in 2024 But at the same time, SAS believes that the market for business trips will never recover.

The prediction is that this market will only reach 80 percent of pre-covid demand Norway is still the most important submarket for SAS.

Norway accounted for approx 30 per cent of the total operating income of SAS last year.

As the table above shows, the income was then 31 8 billion Swedish kroner.

Hello Kastrup! SAS seems to want to continue the strategy of having Kastrup as the company's hub for international flights This is good news for Danish business and for SAS's opportunity to receive large capital contributions from the Danish state.

- I think Copenhagen is the natural hub for SAS We are located furthest north in Europe and people want per definition therefore travel south.

Then you don't place a hub on Svalbard, says Van der Werff - So you support the strategy with one hub? - Yes absolutely.

Norway will continue to be our largest market It is one of the largest markets in Europe and also in the world.

We want many direct routes out of both Norway and Sweden But one hub is correct.

.