Success Stories
Transformation Realized

Guiding Scandinavian Airlines to a Smooth Landing After Chapter 11

Transformation Realized

Guiding Scandinavian Airlines to a Smooth Landing After Chapter 11

Meredith BrownMichael Healy
Key Contacts
Meredith Brown and Michael Healy

Guiding Scandinavian Airlines to a Smooth Landing After Chapter 11

How do you reroute an airline amid economic and geopolitical headwinds?

Facing severe impacts related to post-pandemic travel downturns, increased competition with low-cost airlines, a major pilot strike, the closure of Russian airspace and subsequent loss of related routes to Asia due to the war in Ukraine, Scandinavian Airlines (“SAS”), the leading airline in Scandinavia for the last 75 years, chose to file for Chapter 11 in 2022. FTI Consulting was engaged as financial advisor and supported the company in preparing for the filing to ensure sufficient liquidity for ongoing operations.

Our Impact

SAS avoided significant operating disruptions throughout the filing and met all reporting requirements, including debtor-in-possession (“DIP”) reporting, monthly financial reporting and contractual reporting to regulatory agencies.

Turbofan Engine
Turbofan Engine

Slide for Turbofan Engine

SAS secured $700 million in DIP financing and unlocked immediate liquidity through an automatic stay, strengthening its balance sheet and enabling operations to continue throughout the voluntary restructuring process.

Boeing 737 Airliner

Slide for Boeing 737 Airliner

The company negotiated a long-term multinational collective bargaining agreement, generating an annual reduction in labor costs of approximately 20%.

Airplane window at sunset, highlighting the wing and winglet

Slide for Airplane window at sunset, highlighting the wing and winglet

With sufficient liquidity and a viable path forward, SAS exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy on August 28, 2024, allowing the company to reemerge with reduced debt and new owners.

In crisis and transformation,real-world experience delivers.

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Our Role

International bankruptcy and reorganization expertise strategically deployed to meet unique needs

FTI Consulting assisted SAS in quickly and efficiently preparing for a Chapter 11 filing.

  1. Our interdisciplinary experts worked closely with SAS and its advisors to establish contingency plans to avoid any operating disruptions as a result of the filing.

  2. FTI Consulting trained SAS employees on the dynamics of Chapter 11, assisted with all court-required schedules and reporting and helped prepare the company for first-day motions, voluntary petitions and exhibits, and related filings.

  3. Our contract solutions experts provided a thorough contract collection and review to extract critical details needed to meet court-imposed deadlines and organize the contracts for further analysis, in support of the Schedule G filing deadline. This included prioritizing contracts by value, identifying contracts that had or would soon expire and categorizing agreements according to the airline’s numerous global business units.

  4. As the matter progressed, our data and analytics team, using FTI Consulting’s Analytics and Resolution Claims Solution (“ARCS”), supported the claims process to ensure efficient and timely resolution of claims.

  5. Our experts supported SAS with vendor, supplier and internal communications throughout the process to ensure ongoing maintenance of critical operations and share important information.

Awards & Recognition

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    Atlas Award: Cross Border Turnaround of the Year (Large)

    2025
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