SAS, EUROPE’S sixth largest airline, has had as torrid a time as any over the past two years. Traffic plummeted through the various lockdowns: in each of 2020 and 2021 it carried less than 9m passengers, only 30% of the 28.5m it saw in 2019. In the two years to the end of October 2022 (SAS is unique in choosing October as its financial year end) it lost a cumulative total of SEK15bn ($1.4bn) at both the operating and net level on revenues of SEK34bn — a negative margin of (46)%. Finally in July, spurred by a pilots’ strike, the group voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US courts.
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