SAS warns much more needed to restore financial health
SAS, which is working its way through a Chapter 11 restructuring in the US, cautioned that much more remains to be done to convince stakeholders to invest in the ailing Scandinavian carrier. The airline also needs to overcome the impact of a pilot strike and travel disruptions that hobbled its key summer season, just as as the price of jet fuel has soared and inflation accelerates. “Cost reductions across all of SAS remain in focus to secure our cost competitiveness,” the Stockholm-based airline said in a statement on Friday as it reported Q3 earnings. It’s “identified the vast majority” of the 7.5b kronor ($707m) in annual expenses it must slash. It reported total operating expenses of 24.4b kronor for the nine months through July, up by 10.8b kronor, adjusted for currency impacts. The tri-national airline has made meaningful progress on both its staffing crisis and financial restructuring plans over the summer. Earlier this month, Apollo Global Management Inc. agreed to provide the company with a roughly $700 million loan, known as debtor-in-possession financing, to help it through the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process. Besides the loan agreement with Apollo, SAS is nearing results in talks regarding the renegotiation of contracts to reduce lease costs and to “right-size” the fleet, CEO Anko van der Werff said. “We are progressing on our ongoing discussions,” he said. “I think they will last for another few months.” August also saw the company’s pilots approve a collective labor agreement that the airline and unions reached last month to end a 15-day strike. The July walkout hit SAS at the busiest time of the year as it was forced to cancel 3,700 flights, affecting 380,000 passengers and costing $135m.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2022-08-29/star/sas-warns-much-more-needed-to-restore-financial-health
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SAS warns much more needed to restore financial health
SAS, which is working its way through a Chapter 11 restructuring in the US, cautioned that much more remains to be done to convince stakeholders to invest in the ailing Scandinavian carrier. The airline also needs to overcome the impact of a pilot strike and travel disruptions that hobbled its key summer season, just as as the price of jet fuel has soared and inflation accelerates. “Cost reductions across all of SAS remain in focus to secure our cost competitiveness,” the Stockholm-based airline said in a statement on Friday as it reported Q3 earnings. It’s “identified the vast majority” of the 7.5b kronor ($707m) in annual expenses it must slash. It reported total operating expenses of 24.4b kronor for the nine months through July, up by 10.8b kronor, adjusted for currency impacts. The tri-national airline has made meaningful progress on both its staffing crisis and financial restructuring plans over the summer. Earlier this month, Apollo Global Management Inc. agreed to provide the company with a roughly $700 million loan, known as debtor-in-possession financing, to help it through the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process. Besides the loan agreement with Apollo, SAS is nearing results in talks regarding the renegotiation of contracts to reduce lease costs and to “right-size” the fleet, CEO Anko van der Werff said. “We are progressing on our ongoing discussions,” he said. “I think they will last for another few months.” August also saw the company’s pilots approve a collective labor agreement that the airline and unions reached last month to end a 15-day strike. The July walkout hit SAS at the busiest time of the year as it was forced to cancel 3,700 flights, affecting 380,000 passengers and costing $135m.<br/>
