We really believe in this ownership structure. I think the owners will become much more focused, says Anko van der Werff to TT.
We have venture capital as owners, which of course means we have to be business-like. We have Air France-KLM and they know airlines. So the path towards consolidation for us – which SAS has tried to achieve since the 1990s – looks very good, he adds.
"You can't take SAS away from Sweden"
The fact that the Swedish state – and the Wallenberg sphere – have disappeared from the ownership picture does not mean that Sweden will be deprioritized, according to van der Werff:
You can take Sweden out of SAS, but you can't take SAS away from Sweden.
At the board and management level, where we decide which flights we should have and design our bonus programs, we have never worried about who our owners are. It has not been a competition about who owns what.
The important thing is profitability, and as long as it is economically viable to fly to and from Sweden, SAS will do so, according to van der Werff.
We will not leave Sweden, he says.
He flags that there may well be more long-haul flights from Arlanda in the future, when the cooperation with Delta Air Lines and others has developed.
Absolutely. We have kept Arlanda-New York and we will see which new routes we can have.
"Sweden must think again"
At the same time, the SAS CEO takes the opportunity to criticize Swedish aviation policy. He is critical of the flight tax and has difficulty understanding why there should be two airports in the Stockholm area: Bromma and Arlanda.
The flight tax has really hit SAS. I don't want to hold a political speech, but Sweden must collectively think about how we handle aviation issues. Sweden must rethink its policy on aviation.
SAS will continue to adapt to a changing aviation market, according to van der Werff.
People work more digitally and from home. But despite this, there is an increased demand for flights. People prioritize travel and fly more than before – just in a different way.
He notes that there is a hard price pressure on air tickets.
But we see that more and more people are traveling with us. The last twelve months have had the highest cabin factor we've ever had. We fill our planes with passengers better than we've ever done before.
The airline SAS – which was recently delisted from the stock exchanges in Stockholm, Oslo, and Copenhagen – has completed its reconstruction, both the Swedish and American parts.
In the process – where SAS had bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 of the US bankruptcy law – debts of two billion dollars have been handled, the fleet has been adapted, and new agreements have been made with lenders and subcontractors.
With the reconstruction completed, the door opens for a capital injection of 1.2 billion dollars (over twelve billion kronor) that the new major owners, the Danish state, Air France-KLM, the Danish financier Henrik Lind, and Castlelake will pay for new convertible bonds and shares in the company.
The Swedish state and the Wallenberg sphere have stepped down as owners and are therefore leaving SAS's board, where the Dane Kåre Schultz – with a background in the pharmaceutical industry – takes over as new chairman after Carsten Dilling.
SAS is also on its way to leave Star Alliance (with Lufthansa and United Airlines) to instead join the airline alliance Sky Team (with Air France, KLM, and Delta Air Lines).
