"SAS is likely to get sweaty the rest of the summer as well"

The SAS strike seems to have put real terror in those whom SAS has for months tried to persuade to bring in new healthy billions to save SAS from the economic crisis.

How many years do we avoid the threat of a strike seems to have at least been the question to which they above all wanted a good enough answer to not only say thank you, but no thank you, to become future major players in SAS.

It was now five years without a strike, according to the union.

Five and a half according to the SAS manager.

The agreement runs until September 30, 2027. It will be five years and 2.5 months, or 5.2 years, which means that the SAS manager, in violation of all the different rounding rules in mathematics, rounds to 5.5.

370,000 travelers were affected

In all probability, this is not about lack of mathematical knowledge on the part of CEO Anko van der Werff.

Rather, it should probably be interpreted as him taking every chance to make reality look a little, a little better.

From the investors' perspective, then.

At its deepest, of course, it is most important to look good in the eyes of customers.

Their confidence in SAS is said to have been damaged by a record amount in this strike: it lasted for a full fifteen days, exactly when Sommarsverige holiday peaks.

In addition, the year when the Swedes' pent-up desire to travel is probably the largest since SAS was formed.

370,000 passengers have been affected by the strike, but 30 million annual passengers will regain confidence that the trip will end even if you book it with SAS.

20 billion in debt to be converted

Even before the strike, SAS has canceled 4,000 departures on its own due to a lack of resources in the start-up after the pandemic.

Those who book well in advance may also consider whether SAS is left at all when it's time to travel.

- This is not really how we are, CEO Anko van der Werff also assured customers this morning.

But if there are 30 million reasons to worry about customer trust, then there are 30 billion reasons to worry about lenders 'and owners' trust.

Lenders need to agree to convert 20 billion in debt into equity.

The Swedish, Norwegian and Danish governments have already said yes, but there are many more on the list of lenders with billions in claims, everything from banks and authorities to aircraft rental companies to those controlled by the Chinese government.

Wage reductions by 5 percent

And then we have the secretive new investor, who seems to have had a great deal to say in the negotiations during the strike.

This someone will cough up the lion's share of the 9.5 billion in completely new capital that SAS needs.

The new agreement gives the pilots who were laid off in the pandemic the job back as needed, which was a key requirement from the union.

But there will be wage cuts, according to information by 5 percent, and certainly worse conditions.

Otherwise, with the new agreement, SAS would not reduce costs by the 600 million annually mentioned.

And 600 million is thus only a fraction of the annual savings of SEK 7.5 billion that are included in the survival plan that the SAS management is working on.

"SAS is supposed to get sweaty"

At the same time, the strike has cost at least SEK 1.5 billion.

And there may be more if travelers are to be paid according to EU rules for being affected by the strike.

SAS has in itself protested against this in court in previous strikes, on the grounds that a strike is an event beyond the company's control.

But it has been rejected because SAS - of course - has control over staff conditions.

However, it can be expensive.

And SAS is likely to get sweaty, even for the rest of the summer.