Scandinavian airline SAS widens losses in Q1

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Scandinavian airline group SAS says it steeply widened its losses in the first quarter of the year, to 729 million kronor ($108 million) from 373 million kronor, blaming most of the downturn on continued high jet fuel prices, the economic crisis as well as cut-throat competition, especially within the budget airline sector.

The Stockholm-headquartered group also announced it will not deliver a profitability forecast for this year.

Thursday's report showed that revenues in the January-March period improved somewhat compared with the same three months a year ago however, rising to 9.59 billion kronor from 9.31 billion kronor.