SAS chief urges airline industry to ‘get real’ as he laments missed consolidation chance

The CE of Scandinavian carrier SAS has questioned the narrative that demand for long-haul travel in particular will align with pre-Covid trends and assumptions, as he urged the industry to ”get real” about the challenges ahead. Anko van der Werff said that while he is seeing a rebound in demand for travel as Covid-19 restrictions are removed, “it’s not going to fly” for the industry “to just build back what we had, who we were”. Factors including greater airline debt coming out of the pandemic, rising inflation, higher fuel costs, the impacts of the Russia-Ukraine war on globalisation, and structural demand changes in long-haul connecting traffic – notably driven by an increased corporate focus on sustainability – all need to be taken into account when mapping out the industry’s future, he suggests. “I’m not fully convinced and I’m not sold yet on the future,” van der Werff states. “We do have to change. We do have to get real about what is working for the industry.”<br/>