Europe’s Nordic region is seeing a further power shift from SAS to Norwegian and Finnair

An analysis of the 1Q2012 results of Europe's Nordic region's three largest airlines is showing that Norwegian Air Shuttle realised the highest increase in passenger numbers and revenue compared to the year-ago quarter, but Finnair made impressive progress in improving its bottom line. SAS Group remains the region's largest carrier but growth is sluggish and losses are mounting, which puts its survival chances further in question. SAS Group is owned by the States of Denmark, Norway and Sweden and has posted full-year net losses since 2008 despite a series of restructuring and cost reduction exercises.

SAS Group's market share in these countries is progressively under pressure of LCCs, mainly Norwegian and Ryanair, and fresh headwinds include the Jan-2012 bankruptcy of Spanair, in which it held a 10.9%, and the loss of essential regional feed owing the demise of three Nordic regional airlines: Cimber Sterling, Skyways and City Airline. It is thus not surprising that one of SAS Group's shareholders recurrently reevaluates the need of holding on to their stake in the carrier.