SAS, the Scandinavian flagship airline, has finally exited US bankruptcy after a long and expensive process.
The good news:
- The airline was saved, protecting 11,000 jobs.
- New owners were secured, injecting $1.2 billion.
The bad news:
- The process took much longer than expected.
- Consulting fees ballooned to over 2 billion NOK.
- The airline secured far less equity than planned, resulting in a much higher debt burden (37 billion NOK).
- Existing shareholders and many creditors lost their investments.
Overall, SAS was saved but at a significant cost.