Further responding to the crisis and adapting operations to a lower air travel demand, SAS has announced it will cut up to 5,000 full-time positions.

Considering the fact that demand for passenger air services will remain low for the rest of 2020 and will reach the pre-crisis levels only in several years, the airline said it is aligning its business operations with the current environment on the market.

Now SAS operates only some domestic flights in Norway and Sweden. During the peak summer season it also does not expect high volumes. Thus, more drastic measures are about to be implemented.

“The potential reduction of the workforce by up to 5,000 full-time positions will be split with approximately 1,900 full-time positions in Sweden, 1,300 in Norway and 1,700 in Denmark”, said SAS in a statement.

SAS explained that it is in talks with its unions and stakeholders to mitigate the number of cuts. Therefore, Rickard Gustafson, CEO of SAS, assured that if the demand recovers sooner than expected, the airline “will remain ready to quickly ramp-up operations and reduce the number of affected positions”.