SAS is looking to reduce its fleet as part of its Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection and aims to return 10 wide-body and narrow-body Airbus and Boeing aircraft to lessors in a bid to cut costs.
The Scandinavian airline has reportedly selected two Airbus A350-900s, three A330-300 wide-bodies, three A320neos, a single A321 jet and a Boeing 737-700 narrow-body plane to be returned, according to Airways Magazine.
The recent decision may involve planes holding the following registration numbers: SE-RSB, SE-RSC, LN-RKS, LN-RKU, LN-RKT, EI-SIF, SE-ROD, SE-ROC, OY-KBL, and SE-RET.
According to Planespotters.com data, SAS has leased its two 2.6 years old A350-900 wide-body passenger aircraft from Japanese lessor Fuyo General Lease. It holds lease agreements for three A330-300s with Chinese company Bocomm Leasing, three leasing contracts with Ireland-based lessor SMBC Aviation Capital for A320-200s, and another with Japanese lessor Itochu for the 20.9 years-old A321-200 jet. The airline also has a single contract with Irish AerCap for the lease of its 20.5 years-old Boeing 737-200 aircraft.
The carrier currently has a fleet of 111 jets, of which it owns 20, but once the adjustments have been made it will likely operate around a hundred planes – or even fewer.
The move is part of several cost-cutting measures under the airline’s restructuring plan ‘SAS FORWARD’ which could see the airline shrink its costs by $696 million (SEK 7.5 billion).
In the Chapter 11 overview, which was released on July 5, 2022, the airline said it also aims to restructure its debt obligations and emerge from Chapter 11 with “a significant capital injection” that should help it “to participate in the market as a strong competitor for the long term”. SAS also explained that it hopes to raise equity in the first half of 2023 and exit the court-supervised process within nine to 12 months from July 2022.
