27.01.2023 - 08:38 UTC
The Swiss Federal Administrative Court has annulled a EUR3.9 million euro (USD4.26 million dollar) fine imposed on Air France, Air France-KLM, and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines in relation to a decades-old alleged cargo cartel that has ensnared multiple airlines and their subsidiaries.
A January 18 statement issued by Air France's legal team, Linklaters, said the court annulled the Swiss Competition Commission-issued fine in a December 20 judgement. "The Federal Administrative Court accepted Air France's arguments, particularly regarding the lack of jurisdiction for certain practices," the statement read.
Notably, the matter concerned only the three entities, with Martinair, British Airways, Air Canada, JAL - Japan Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines, SAS Scandinavian Airlines, LATAM Airlines, and Cargolux not being party to the proceedings. The case stemmed from alleged cargo cartel activity between 1999 and 2006 among the carriers. In 2010, the European Commission began issuing a series of fines to the airlines for the alleged fixing of air cargo charges, many of which have been successfully overturned...
12.01.2023 - 10:25 UTC
SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK, Copenhagen Kastrup) has petitioned the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York to allow it to return two more aircraft to lessors. The airline made the request in a January 9 court filing relating to its voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy status.
In an application, the carrier said A330-300 LN-RKR (msn 1660) and A320-200N SE-ROH (msn 9173) were now surplus to requirements. An attached affidavit signed by Michael Cox, the senior managing director of Seabury Securities LLC, said the two leases were at above-market rates and the decision by the airline to reject them was "a sound business judgement."
"The excess aircraft are no longer required in the debtors’ restructured fleet," the filing read. "Thus, requiring the debtors to retain the excess aircraft would impose unnecessary costs on the debtors’ estates with little to no corresponding benefit. Accordingly, rejection of the leases constitutes a proper exercise of the debtors’ business judgment as it will reduce costs for the debtors’ estates. Therefore, the rejection of the leases...
12.01.2023 - 09:32 UTC
SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK, Copenhagen Kastrup) has advised it will not make an interest payment on its CHF200 million Swiss francs (USD214.8 million) perpetual subordinated bonds. The airline, which voluntarily entered into Chapter 11 bankruptcy provisions in July 2022, was due to make the interest payment on January 14, 2023. The currency bonds have CHF127.195 million (USD136.6 million) still outstanding.
The bonds, which pay 0.625% annually, are colloquially known as the Swiss bonds and were issued on January 14, 1986. They began trading on the open market on January 29, 2015, and Citibank now holds a substantial tranche. Entities involved in recent on-market and off-market trades involving the bonds include the Zurich Cantonal Bank, Southey Capital, and Cbonds Estimation.
SAS Scandinavian Airlines launched a transformation plan dubbed SAS Forward in early 2022. In April, the airline elected to postpone interest payments on two perpetual loan period hybrid bonds "in accordance with the terms and conditions” of those bonds. When the carrier applied for bankruptcy protection in mid-2022, it noted that it needed to...
09.01.2023 - 15:08 UTC
SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK, Copenhagen Kastrup) will wet-lease three B737s from Jettime (JTD, Copenhagen Kastrup) for the Summer 2023 season.
The Danish leisure ACMI/charter specialist said that the trio would be based out of Denmark and Finland, and would be used to operate routes both to major European cities and summer leisure destinations in the Mediterranean. Vice-President Birthe Madsen told ch-aviation that the agreement does not cover specific B737-800s but rather just the capacity equivalent of three aircraft. The contract will start on March 26, 2023, and run through October 28.
The ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows that Jettime operates a single B737-700 and eight B737-800s. It is planning to add a further two -800s to its fleet in the coming months.
In turn, SAS's narrowbody fleet comprises four A319-100s, eleven A320-200s, fifty-six A320-200Ns (including twenty units operated by SAS Connect), five A321-200s, three A321-200NX (which are used for long-haul flights), six B737-700s, and four -800s.
