Scandinavian airline SAS posted a smaller pretax loss than expected for the second quarter today and said it was launching a plan to save an extra 2 billion Swedish crowns (€195 million).
The ailing carrier said in a statement that its market remained unpredictable and it would cut another 1,000 to 1,500 jobs, equivalent to between 5 and 8 per cent of the workforce based on the average number of employees in the second quarter.
“This programme, which is in addition to the total savings measures under Core SAS of 4.5 billion crowns, includes establishing fully competitive collective agreements for flight deck and cabin personnel,” SAS said.
An SAS spokesman declined to say how much the new programme would cost. The firm said it expected costs for its ongoing Core SAS programme to amount to 1.7 billion crowns in 2009.
SAS had warned in June the Core SAS programme would cost much more this year than the 900 million crowns it had previously estimated, due to an earlier phase-out of aircraft, a higher early retirement ratio than expected and redelivery costs for leased aircraft.
The airline, half of which is owned by Sweden, Norway and Denmark, made a second-quarter pretax loss of 1.04 billion Swedish crowns ($143.5 million). That compared with a mean forecast in a Reuters survey of 7 analysts for a loss of 1.14 billion, and with a year-ago profit of 131 million.
It said measures being implemented under Core SAS were ahead of schedule.
Last week, SAS reported a 13.6 per cent year-on-year drop in its passenger traffic in July. That was the 11th consecutive month the firm reported a drop in traffic.
Finnish rival Finnair last week announced a second-quarter loss caused by weak demand and falling ticket prices, and the resignation of its chief executive.