UTAir buys 20 ATRs; Aer Lingus traffic down 8.4% in March

Two of Scandinavia's biggest carriers have reported positive traffic growth for March. Norwegian Air Shuttle passenger numbers rose 13% to 1.2 million, although load factors and yields are slipping at the LCC. SAS Group reported overall traffic from its three airlines - Scandinavian Airlines, Wideroe and Blue1 - was up 4.9% to 2 million, but average load factors dropped 5 percentage points.