The financially troubled airline SAS was able to renegotiate the contracts for a total of 36 aircraft with ten lessors. This saves the carrier around 77 US dollars. Lease costs are expected to drop to approximately $90 million.

SAS was in intensive negotiations with AerCap, Aergo Capital, Aircastle, ALAFCO, Avolon, CDB Aviation, DAE Capital, ICBC Financial Leasing, ORIX Aviation and SDH Wings International Leasing. The aim was to be able to reduce the expenses for leasing 36 machines. There are 33 narrow and three wide bodies. The carrier currently operates 81 aircraft, 44 of which are leased.

As early as September 2022, SAS announced that it wanted to downsize its fleet. Around ten percent of the leased machines are to be returned to the owners. He also wants to sell five narrowbodies and five widebodies. The parent company SAS Group has been in Chapter 11 proceedings in the United States for several months.

“We continue to make progress in our Chapter 11 process. The revised leases allow us to reconfigure our fleet and improve our cost structure, which is a key element of our SAS Forward plan,” says CEO Anko van der Werff.