STOCKHOLM, May 10 (Xinhua) – Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) will cancel around 4,000 flights this summer, citing staff shortages and delayed deliveries of aircraft, the Swedish financial newspaper Dagens Industri (DI) reported on Tuesday.
The staff shortage is a result of the covid-19 pandemic since about 5,000 employees were laid off when demand for international and domestic flights fell, DI reported.
Karin Nyman from Scandinavian Airlines said that most canceled flights will be rescheduled to the same day, to avoid leaving passengers stranded.
The news of this summer’s cancellations came less than three months after the airline announced that it was in financial trouble.
An interim report released at the end of February showed that the company’s profit before tax amounted to a negative 2.6 billion Swedish kronor (approximately 260 million US dollars) for the period November 2021-January 2022. Compared with the same period 2019 – before the pandemic struck – total revenues decreased by 42 percent.
SAS therefore announced that they would “aggressively strive to reduce costs” by SEK 7.5 billion annually, among other things by adjusting their fleet and product range. (1 US dollar = 10.06 Swedish kronor)
Source: sn.dk