American judge approves SAS’ rescue plan

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.