Swedavia secures loan from Nordic Investment Bank

Swedish airport operator, Swedavia, has secured a €49 million loan from the Nordic Investment Bank to help it through COVID-19.

The seven-year SEK 500 million loan agreement is a COVID-19 response loan aimed at facilitating financing for industries heavily impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

“The loan helps to further strengthen our liquidity at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic is having a dramatic effect on both air travel and Swedavia’s operations,” said Swedavia’s chief financial officer, Mats Påhlson.

Earlier this week Swedavia revealed that just 386,000 passengers passed through its 10 airports in November – a whopping 87% decline on the three million people that used its gateways in the same month a year ago.

It noted that “due to the increased spread of COVID-19, combined with new restrictions, what was already very limited demand for air travel further weakened in November”.

International passengers accounted for 227,000 of November’s throughput, the figure representing a drop of 88% on the same period last year when 1.9 million travellers arrived or departed on international flights.

Domestic travel decreased to a somewhat greater extent compared to previous months, with a decline of 85% or 159,000 domestic passengers compared to 1,079,000 in November 2019.

“Demand for flights diminished week after week in November, which is the ninth straight month of historically weak air travel figures as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic,” noted Swedavia’s president and CEO, Jonas Abrahamsson.

“The increased spread of the virus combined with new and expanded restrictions have contributed to increased uncertainty about the market trend and will probably sap demand in the immediate future.”

At Stockholm Arlanda, passenger numbers plummeted by 87% to 242,000 passengers in November, while At Göteborg Landvetter saw its monthly throughput decrease by 88% to just 58,000 passengers.

The huge traffic decline has put severe pressure on Swedavia’s finances and resulted in the airport operator announcing an operating loss of SEK1.1 billion for the nine months of the year, excluding restructuring costs and capital gains.