Scandinavian airline SAS said on Tuesday May group traffic, measured by revenue passenger kilometres, rose 12.5 percent year-on-year.
The airline, half owned by the governments of Sweden, Denmark and Norway, said its passenger load factor rose 0.7 percentage points year-on-year to 71.7 percent.
The yield in April, the latest month for which unit revenue figures are available, was up 5 percent year-on-year.
However, SAS said it expected the yield this month to be down 5-6 percent, adding that fuel surcharges would gradually support yield going forward, but had limited effect in May.
Like other airlines, SAS has struggled to compete in recent years with cut-price rivals and overcapacity. Now, the surging oil price is the main threat.
The global airline industry could lose USD$6.1 billion if oil remains around USD$135 per barrel for the rest of the year, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said this month. Oil was trading at about USD$134 a barrel on Tuesday.
SAS is now racing to cut costs and increase revenues faster than fuel price rises -- which hit SAS particularly hard because it has a fleet of old planes.
Last year the airline launched a long-term strategy to boost pretax profits to SEK4 billion kroner by 2011. But it has already been forced to take further measures. Its "Profit 2008" plan, unveiled in April, aims for a SEK1.1 billion effect on results this year.
It made a SEK1.05 billion pretax profit in 2007.
SAS repeated that the airline market is still characterized by relatively good demand and passenger growth, but the global economic outlook and competition made the future uncertain.
