Many SAS staff have been temporarily laid off, but now up to 5,000 of them will lose their jobs … [+]
Most staff of Scandinavian Airlines have already been temporarily laid off in recent weeks as the coronavirus travel restrictions continue to devastate commercial aviation. But now up to 5,000 of them—almost half the total number of employees—will lose their jobs permanently.
Job cuts in Sweden, Denmark and Norway
In a stock exchange announcement, SAS explained the need to adapt the organization to a lower expected demand for air travel: “As a result of COVID-19, demand is expected to be significantly affected for the remainder of 2020 and it will take several years for demand to return at the levels before the outbreak. SAS must therefore take decisive measures to adapt the business to an environment with lower demand.”
The statement went on to confirm that up to 5,000 full-time employees will lose their jobs. While the statement signalled that the company plans to work with trade unions to find ways to reduce the amount of job losses, SAS has already allocated 4,900 of the cuts between its three Scandinavian bases; 1,900 in Sweden, 1,700 in Denmark and 1,300 in Norway.
The reduction amounts to almost half the total number of full-time positions in the SAS Group. At the end of November 2019, this stood at 10,445.
Normal operations will take “several years” to return
SAS CEO Rickard Gustafson said that the airline wants to remain the leading airline in Scandinavia and to play a leading role in the region’s infrastructure. “To be able to continue to fulfil this important social function, we must adapt our costs to the prevailing circumstances,” he said.
Gustafson, who successfully led SAS away from the threat of bankruptcy in 2012, told E24 that the decision is “one of the most difficult” he’s had to take: “We now see that this crisis that the industry and the whole world is facing will last so long that we will not have a summer season to rely on. We do not expect to see anything similar to normal levels of demand that we had before the crisis before maybe 2022.”
Just 24 hours ago, SAS’ fierce rivals Norwegian also admitted they do not see a return to normal operations until 2022.
The airline is taking drastic steps now because many SAS employees have notice periods of six months. According to the statement, the process will be implemented in accordance with labour laws in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
Gustafson does leave the door open for a backtrack, however. “We will be ready to scale up the business quickly and reduce the number of job cuts if demand recovers faster than expected,” he said.
