UPDATE 2-Airline SAS posts first quarterly profit since 2019

Scandinavian airline SAS on Friday posted its first quarterly pretax profit since late 2019 aided by lower fuel cost, higher ticket prices and strong demand, and said it would ramp-up capacity this winter compared to a year ago. The airline, which has been under bankruptcy protection since July of 2022, reported a profit before tax of 464 million Swedish crowns ($42.32 million) in its April-July fiscal third-quarter versus a 1.99 billion crowns loss a year earlier. Sydbank analyst Jacob Pedersen, one of the few to still forecast SAS' quarterly earnings, said he had expected a profit of 326 million crowns.