The Scandinavian airline SAS has revealed its results for the first quarter of its financial year 2014 (November 2013-January 2014), reporting a loss of 123 million kroner on a disappointing 6.65 billion kroner turnover.

The quarterly results are considerably less than the 23.5 million kroner profit on 6.98 billion kroner turnover that was predicted by analysts.

“As expected, this has been a weak quarter in terms of profits with a loss of 123 million kroner before tax,” Rickard Gustafson, the head of SAS, said in a press release.

“The first quarter is usually the weakest, but this quarter has also been plagued by market overcapacity and weak growth that has pressurised the margins on the entire market.”

READ MORE: SAS posts first profit since 2007

Can turn it around
Despite the early setback, SAS expects to turn it around and end up with a positive annual financial result by the end of the financial year on October 31.

”Provided that the market development – in terms of capacity, fuel and currency prices – doesn’t further worsen and no unexpected events take place, there is still a potential to deliver a positive EBT,” SAS said in the press release.

While the quarterly results are poorer than expected, the results are surprising considering the stagnation of passenger numbers recently. SAS experienced a slight 0.6 percent increase in passenger numbers during its first quarter.

SAS posted profits of 149 million kroner for its 2013 financial year, the first time that the airline had shown an annual profit since 2007.