Sweden's state-owned airport operator showing signs of pain.

The year’s first nine months has been all but joyful for Sweden's major airport operator, the LFV Group, as the number of passenger declined and earning plunged.

The state-run operator, which is responsible for air navigation services in Sweden, now plans to sell off six of its 16 airports in a move to cut costs and follow government directives.

“We will sell sex airports, first and foremost to the regions and counties”, Mikael Larsson, chief financial officer at LFV Group, told The Swedish Wire. “But private investors will also be a possibility”.

The major airports, such as Arlanda in Stockholm and Landvetter in Gothenburg, will not go under the hammer. The ones to be sold are smaller loss-making airports, in Jönköping, Skellefteå, Örnsköldsvik, Sundsvall, Karlstad and Ängelholm.

However, the sell-offs are not likely to boost the airport operator’s financial reserves. Other airports that recently have been sold, in Norrköping, Kalmar and Halmstad, were uttered for the price of 1 krona ($0.15) each.

“The sales haven't generated any revenues. We have rather paid expenses connected with the deal, such as initial operating costs and necessary investments”, Mikael Larsson said, pointing out that every airport will call for its own price negotiation – although counties will have priority above private investors.

During the period January - September profits fell to 151 million kronor ($21 million) from 516 million kronor last year while passenger numbers were down 13 percent. Prognosis for the full year is a profit of 100 million kronor.

The operator also plans to split LFV Group into two - one to run air traffic and the other to run the remaining ten airports.