STOCKHOLM: Confronted with monetary difficulties and an enormous pilot strike, Scandinavian airline SAS mentioned Tuesday it has filed for so-called Bankruptcy 11 chapter court cases in the USA, as part of restructuring plan. “We merely want to do a lot more and do it a lot quicker,” SAS chairman Carsten Dilling informed a press convention the place defended what he referred to as “a neatly thought-through resolution”.

In america, Bankruptcy 11 is a mechanism permitting an organization to restructure its money owed below court docket supervision whilst proceeding to perform. The transfer used to be made so as “to continue with the implementation of key parts” of its industry transformation plan, the stricken service, which employs just about 7,000 other people, mentioned in a commentary.

Requested why the corporate selected begin the court cases in america, fairly than Sweden the place it’s headquartered, Dilling mentioned they’d regarded as a number of international locations the place they may report, however “ended up concluding that america framework is the correct one for the corporate.” Leader govt Anko van der Werff mentioned they anticipated “to finish the Bankruptcy 11 procedure in 9 to twelve months.”

SAS mentioned its “operations and flight time table are unaffected through the Bankruptcy 11 submitting, and SAS will proceed to serve its shoppers as standard,” whilst noting that the continued strike through Scandinavian pilot unions would proceed to affect operations.

‘Final thing SAS wishes’

“A strike is the very last thing the corporate wishes at the moment,” van der Werff informed journalists. Pilots walked out on Monday after negotiations between the unions and the corporate broke down. The pilots are protesting in opposition to wage cuts demanded through control as a part of a restructuring plan geared toward making sure the survival of the corporate, which has suffered a string of losses for the reason that get started of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020.

On Monday, SAS mentioned that the strike “is estimated to result in the cancellation of roughly 50 p.c of all scheduled SAS flights,” impacting round 30,000 passengers an afternoon. SAS control introduced in February the financial savings plan to chop prices through 7.5 billion Swedish kronor ($700 million), dubbed “SAS Ahead”, which used to be supplemented in June through a plan to extend capital through just about one thousand million euros ($1.04 billion).

Denmark and Sweden are the most important shareholders with 21.8 p.c each and every. Denmark mentioned in June it used to be in a position to extend its stake to 30 p.c. Sweden has refused to supply recent price range, however is keen to show debt into capital. Norway, which left SAS in 2018, has mentioned it’s in a position to go back to the airline, however most effective through changing debt into fairness.

Struggling, like the remainder of the field, from the affect of COVID-19, SAS lower 5,000 jobs, or 40 p.c of its personnel, in 2020. The service now had round 6,900 workers on the finish of Might, a bunch which fell underneath 5,000 on the peak of the pandemic. Stocks in SAS, already at all-time lows, fell through greater than 11 p.c within the early hours of buying and selling at the Stockholm Inventory Alternate.

SAS’s troubles comes because the summer season is shaping as much as be tricky for Eu airways and airports, confronted with group of workers shortages affecting visitors. After fashionable task losses connected to COVID-19, airways and airports are suffering to recruit new group of workers in many nations. – AFP