SAS planning to retire last MD-87 OY-KHU by early September

Norwegian (DY, Oslo Gardermoen) has accused Boeing (BOE, Chicago O'Hare) of “gross negligence and shoddy production” in a lawsuit against the manufacturer in relation to its acquisitions of B737 MAX and B787 aircraft.

A major Boeing customer for many years, Norwegian now claims the US company is at fault for contract violations worth more than USD1 billion, according to legal documents obtained by business newspaper Dagens Næringsliv.

Persistent technical problems with new aircraft forced the airline into “thousands” of flight cancellations, long before the impact of covid-19 on travel began.

“Instead of delivering what they promised, Boeing has deliberately misled and omitted information, shown gross negligence and clumsy production, and made aircraft with significantly impaired value and utility, which in the case of the MAX aircraft had tragic and fatal consequences,” reads the lawsuit filed at the District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in the United States.

Norwegian alleged in the court papers that Boeing was aware that five B787-9s due for delivery, which were powered by Rolls-Royce...

CityJet (WX, Dublin Int'l) has formally made more than 250 of its employees redundant, the Irish Independent has reported, despite the pilots staging a protest outside the carrier's offices near Dublin Int'l Airport last month.

The airline told the newspaper that 46 pilots and 62 cabin crew were among those notified that they had been let go and that "a small number" more will be told this week.

It has also identified 149 jobs in Dublin and London Luton that are at risk in support and engineering roles and at the company's headquarters. A number of these personnel have already received redundancy notifications, with the rest to be informed in the coming days.

CityJet employed 1,175 people before the current crisis. Controlled by the lessor Falko Regional Aircraft, it entered into examinership in mid-April, protecting it from creditors. Its Swedish, Finnish, Dutch, and French subsidiaries have already filed for bankruptcy.

"Unfortunately, it has not proved possible to find any solution to the current situation other than to make compulsory redundancies," a...

SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK, Copenhagen Kastrup) admitted in a statement on July 10 that it had cancelled meetings on proposed conversions of a bond and hybrid notes into shares, which are a key part of its planned recapitalisation.

As previously reported, the company had included in its SEK14.25 billion kronor (USD1.5 billion) plan, the conversion into common shares of both a SEK2.25 billion (USD242 billion) bond due in November 2022 and SEK1.5 billion (USD161 billion) worth of existing hybrid notes.

Meetings had been scheduled for July 17, the statement said, but “SAS has concluded that the majority required for the respective conversions cannot be expected to be obtained,” a presumption it had made based on information provided by Intertrust, the agent for the holders of the bond and the notes.

Capital injections by the governments of Sweden and Denmark, the company's top shareholders, are conditional on the conversions taking place.

“This condition remains an important cornerstone of the recapitalisation plan,” and now SAS “will seek to enter into discussions with representatives of the holders...

SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK, Copenhagen Kastrup) has agreed a SEK14.25 billion kronor (USD1.5 billion) plan with its three largest shareholders to "restore equity" and secure around SEK12 billion (USD1.3 billion) in new funding, it announced in a statement on June 30.

The plan is backed by the governments of Sweden and Denmark and the third-largest shareholder, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the cash-strapped carrier said.

The measures include a deeply discounted share issue of about SEK2 billion (USD215 billion) to these owners, a broader rights issue of new shares amounting to SEK3.994 billion (USD429 billion), and new hybrid notes to the major shareholders totalling SEK6 billion (USD645 billion).

They also include the conversion of a SEK2.25 billion (USD242 billion) bond due in November 2022 into common shares and the conversion of SEK1.5 billion (USD161 billion) in existing hybrid notes into common shares.

The government of Norway, which sold the remaining stake it had in SAS in 2018, will continue to pay the airline to keep its network in the country. It has offered...