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SAS airline may go bust

Scandinavian airline carrier, SAS, is just weeks away from bankruptcy, report media. Employees can reject survival plan

Scandinavia’s struggling airline, SAS, is closer to going bust than previously believed, report Seven59.dk and Politiken.dk

The company will be forced to file for bankruptcy within weeks if employees reject the survival plan presented by management, leading to all flights being cancelled and 15,000 redundancies throughout Scandinavia. SAS was founded by airlines of Denmark, Norway and Sweden in 1946 and is partially owned by the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish governments.

»It’s correct that the company doesn’t have enough money to last until the end of the year. And this isn’t a tactical manoeuvre to put pressure on unions – it’s a fact,« a top-level SAS said to Politiken.

Banks will freeze credit

Other sources claim that SAS has already worked out an emergency plan of action numbering hundreds of pages laying out precise procedures for how to close the company down.

Aviation analyst Lars Heindorff of investment bank AGB Sundal Collier confirmed that the situation is extremely serious.

»If the rescue plan is rejected the banks will freeze credit facilities immediately, and without credit it’s impossible to run an airline,« he said.

Denmark the most to lose

Politiken sources claim that the Danish government is extremely concerned and that the Danish Minister of Finance is battling to keep the other major shareholders, Norway and Sweden, on board.

The Danish state has the most to lose due to the thousands of jobs and subsidiary industries linked to Copenhagen Airport.

See Politiken article (in Danish)

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