Scandinavian Airlines to cancel 4,000 flights due to staff shortages

Stockholm, May 11 Scandinavian Airlines, the flag carrier of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, is set to cancel around 4,000 flights this summer due to staff shortages and delayed deliveries of aircraft, Swedish financial daily Dagens Industri (DI) said in a report.

The staff shortages are a result of the Covid-19 pandemic since around 5,000 employees were laid off as demand for international and domestic flights plummeted, Xinhua news agency quoted the DI report as saying on Tuesday.

An official from the Stockholm-headquartered airline said that most cancelled flights will be rescheduled for the same day, to avoid leaving passengers stranded.

The news about the cancellations came less than three months after the airline announced it was in financial trouble.

An interim financial report released in February showed the company's earnings before tax stood at a negative 2.6 billion Swedish crowns ($260 million) for the period November 2021-January 2022.

Compared with the same period in 2019, before the Covid pandemic struck, total revenues were down 42 per cent.

SAS, therefore, announced it would "aggressively pursue reducing costs" by 7.5 billion Swedish crowns annually, by adjusting its fleet and product offerings, among other things.

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