SAS official: ‘we had 10 days of cash remaining’

A figurehead of SAS Airlines has said the firm was on the brink of total collapse prior to recent negotiations.

Travel Insurance News - 31/12/2012

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A figurehead of SAS Airlines has said the firm was on the brink of total collapse prior to recent negotiations.

The comments came at the weekend via the carrier’s board vice chairman Jacob Wallenberg, who told reporters that the ailing airline only had 10 days of cash left at one point in November, prompting extended labour negotiations and a consultation with a bankruptcy lawyer.

Wallenberg said during an interview with the Danish Dagens Nyheter newspaper that the company had kept its seemingly dire state a secret with the public and with labour unions prior to October, fearing that a revelation would see the firm “bleeding at the seams”.

The airline, which is partly owned by the governments of Denmark, Sweden and Norway, has since gained union backing for major cost-cutting efforts in its struggle to overcome heavy competition from regional budget carriers. The move will see some 800 job losses, according to reports.

Meanwhile, Wallenberg continues to defend the actions of SAS management, saying that if it hadn’t presented the desperation of the situation to labour unions that nearly 15,000 employees would now be out of work.

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