Sweden says that SAS plans to increase cash requirement “thorough analysis”
SAS said on Tuesday that it aims to reduce annual costs by 7.5 billion Swedish kronor (805.5 million dollars) across the entire company over five years, and that it hopes to be able to raise more money from its main owners Sweden and Denmark after a multi-billion rescue deal by 2020.
Sweden’s Minister of Trade and Industry Karl-Petter Thorwaldsson told Reuters on Wednesday that it would take time to analyze SAS’s plan.
“The company has just presented an overall plan that consists of many different components. We will include both financial and legal advice in the comprehensive analysis that needs to be done,” he said.
“As the responsible owner, it is important to make a thorough analysis of the content of the plan before we give further comments,” he says in an email.
Nikolaj Wammen, Minister of Finance in Denmark, who also has a 22% share in SAS, told Reuters on Tuesday that the government is closely monitoring SAS’s development and declined to comment further.
Loss-making SAS had already been fighting for several years in the face of increasing competition from low-cost airlines when the pandemic and travel restrictions hit the aviation industry.
($ 1 = 9.3106 Swedish kronor)
(Reportage by Helena Söderpalm, authorship by Anna Ringström, editing by Louise Heavens)
By Helena Söderpalm