Seeing the end of the tunnel. That’s the feeling that SAS Scandinavian Airlines President and CEO Anko van der Werff must have, now that his airline is one step closer to exiting Chapter 11 restructuring early next year. Last week, the Southern District of New York Bankruptcy Court approved the investment agreement with the four new shareholders that was announced in October.
However, SAS will only be free to act once it has secured regulatory approval from the European Commission as well as implementing the restructuring of SAS AB in Sweden. Only then, the airline will close the book on a complicated juridical period. It started in February 2022 with the launch of the SAS FORWARD transformation plan and was followed by filing for Chapter 11 in New York in July after the pilot strike.
Active as a journalist since 1987, with a background in newspapers, magazines, and a regional news station, Richard has been covering commercial aviation on a freelance basis since late 2016.
Richard is contributing to AirInsight since December 2018. He also writes for Airliner World, Aviation News, Piloot & Vliegtuig, and Luchtvaartnieuws Magazine. Twitter: @rschuur_aero.
