Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) CEO Anko van der Werff told the Routes Europe conference that his airline sees slots surrender as unlikely ot featuren in EU competition remedies may arise from the Air France-KLM deal.
He does not anticipate Air France-KLM increasing its stake beyond 19.9pc in the first two years following the deal’s closure.
SAS has shepherded investment from a consortium, including Air France-KLM, as part of the SAS Forward restructuring plan, with plans to invest $1.2bn in exchange for a 19.9pc stake and transition to the SkyTeam alliance.
Despite facing challenges with EU approval for the equity raise and completing SAS’ Swedish court-led restructuring, the airline is progressing towards completing its U.S. Chapter 11 restructuring, initiated in summer 2022.
Mr Van der Werff said the airline’s balance sheet was “literally just unsustainable and the summer 2022 pilots’ strike was the final straw that pushed SAS into Chapter 11. SAS should have gone into Chapter 11 in 2020, when many other airlines took the opportunity to restructure. It took us a very long time. It’s not comfortable, it’s not easy to take these decisions, especially when you don’t take them when you should have done, which was 2020. That was the logical moment—when the entire industry went in. That was the moment to do it. So, when I arrived in 2021, there was a reluctance—a hesitation—to do anything.”
