SAS executives say continued losses are part of its restructuring plan. But despite progress on costs, the airline's biggest strategic weakness remains untouched.
Winter is always a tough time for Europe's airlines. This winter looks even tougher for pandemic startups as they navigate inflation, high energy costs, and stiff competition.
Scandinavia's two largest airlines, SAS and Norwegian Air, may see pre-pandemic travel trends returning but both face their own restructuring challenges.
The list of pandemic airline bankruptcies keeps growing even as travel bounces back faster than anticipated. But hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars in government aid didn't save SAS, which became the latest victim Tuesday.
The pandemic took its latest aviation victim with Scandinavia's SAS filing for Chapter 11 Tuesday. But the bankruptcy is more about extracting cost savings from aircraft lessors than breaking a pilots strike that has grounded much of the airline.