STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN — Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, SAS Scandinavian has temporarily stored one of its Airbus A350 aircraft as part of cost-cutting measures intended to help the carrier handle the financial implications and repercussions after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the USA.
On November 29, airline's brand-new Airbus A350-900, with registration SE-RSC, flew from Stockholm Arlanda Airport to Tarbes, France for long-term storage. On the same day, another Scandinavian A350-900 (SE-RSB) was seen making an empty flight from Copenhagen, where it was usually based for its operations, to Arlanda, Sweden, in preparation for a similar fate.
The future of SAS' remaining four A350-900s remains uncertain. Ten aircraft in total are likely to leave the SAS fleet soon as part of the airline's fleet restructuring plans. Besides A350s, some older-generation A320s will also leave the fleet to enable the airline to reduce maintenance and fuel costs.
Following widespread losses, SAS is currently in talks with 13 lessors who hold the rights to as many as 46 aircraft in the SAS fleet. During a meeting with shareholders and media representatives, the company clarified that the new cost-cutting measures will help the airline save up to approximately 7.5 billion SEK annually. These measures represent a critical step towards meeting the goals set in the company's long-term recovery plan, "SAS FORWARD."
SAS officials are likely to renegotiate existing leasing terms with lessors instead of taking the more costly and dramatic approach of removing the 46 aircraft in question entirely from the fleet. The carrier's current fleet consists of 137 aircraft.
The airline expects to successfully exit the bankruptcy protection program known as Chapter 11 in a twelve-month span that would end the following July. Company management stated that they hope to emerge from the restructuring and financial reorganization with a much stronger balance sheet and a greatly-increased likelihood of achieving sustainability in the near- and long-term future.
