If done correctly, I don't think there necessarily would be any harm if SAS US contact center staff was cut almost entirely and shifted to somewhere back in Europe or even Asia. It could even be beneficial to some customers who have hitherto been telephonically shuttled around the SK world. Yes, call process costs ought to be lower in the US than in Denmark, Sweden or Norway, at least from a labor unit cost perspective, but there's enough places in Europe or Asia that are far cheaper and ought to be able to handle much the same as well or better.

What I find amusing is that SAS seems to not be the best in terms of timing its exits/entries into markets. It scales up in some markets rather late in the game, and scales back in other parts right before the game gets rolling there.

How much more can SAS scale back the US market without sending an even larger number of home market business travellers onto the competition even more so than already? I think LH and others are going to eat SAS's cake (even more than already) if SAS scale back too much more on US-Scandinavia. And LH and others are going to have a better grip on more places in Asia than SAS will ever be able to manage. Already I find a lot of Scandiavian business travellers more in love with LH than SK when it comes to travel to Asia and the US. I have doubts that SAS can live independently well for long if it does not have a strong grip on customers originating from and/or "destinationed" to the business/political centers in Scandinavia.