Bloomberg article on SAS - can’t be good
Jul 11, 2019, 4:23 am
#16
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Jul 11, 2019, 6:42 am
#17
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True, or Switzerland. Was talking about Europe...
I’m in CH quite a Bit on business and guess what? I take almost exclusively the trains. But in Sweden, Germany, Poland, France or Italy? No way! Have been burned too many times.
I’m in CH quite a Bit on business and guess what? I take almost exclusively the trains. But in Sweden, Germany, Poland, France or Italy? No way! Have been burned too many times.
Jul 11, 2019, 6:44 am
#18
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Scandinavia isn’t Japan. And it never will be. Even with as much oil money as Norway has, there’s a limit to what it does to invest in the passenger rail sector. Thus Bergen-Oslo can be done by air in 50 minutes while doing the same by train won’t take less than 7 times longer today by rail than by air and rail won’t take less than 4 times longer than by air anytime soon.
Jul 11, 2019, 7:13 am
#19
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We have offices in GDN and WAW, and our biggest customer in PL is in WRO, KRK and KTW. (Funny enough have been in Wałbrzych a lot of times, was our "pilot area" 
). Often I go to GDN or WAW and from there try to combine customer visits south and on the way back stop over in the other office. For WAW-GDN it seems to work pretty well, in summer and winter. For WAW going south... In winter... well... had a lot of delays due to stuck doors, frozen tracks, not working signals etc. while the short 45mins hops via LOT for 400 SEK on way never let me down. And with the high frequency between WAW and WRO I can even spend the morning in our office and have a meeting in the afternoon or vice versa. Not possible with the train.
). Often I go to GDN or WAW and from there try to combine customer visits south and on the way back stop over in the other office. For WAW-GDN it seems to work pretty well, in summer and winter. For WAW going south... In winter... well... had a lot of delays due to stuck doors, frozen tracks, not working signals etc. while the short 45mins hops via LOT for 400 SEK on way never let me down. And with the high frequency between WAW and WRO I can even spend the morning in our office and have a meeting in the afternoon or vice versa. Not possible with the train.
Jul 11, 2019, 12:52 pm
#20
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https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/a...-the-local-bus
“Troubled Scandinavian Airlines operator SAS AB is now smaller than a bus company.”
Hopefully SAS can recover or figure something out!!
“Troubled Scandinavian Airlines operator SAS AB is now smaller than a bus company.”
Hopefully SAS can recover or figure something out!!
Look at how many Swedish airports were served 20 years ago vs today. NRK used to have service from CPH as did many other cities, but none from ARN or Bromma. Virtually all flights went or go via Stockholm, whereas in any other country of this size, would have far, far more domestic service. Norway uses PSOs to keep the country served, Sweden just doesn't bother. SJ is hobbled by poor infrastructure investment over the past few decades (especially under governments led by the "moderates") almost as bad as Germany. That said, with post 9/11 security and complications the train is easier and cheaper for many. Maybe not for a lot of the rich people/generous companies who frequent these forums but for many people it's the only option.
For the three capitals in Scandinavia, only Copenhagen to and from Stockholm is doable via train regularly. Oslo to Stockholm or Copenhagen to Oslo are not well connected via rail and connections are slow. Denmark's lack of electrification means transit to Germany and the continent is difficult past Copenhagen.
Jul 11, 2019, 4:29 pm
#21
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Norwegian gave a hard and sudden boot to the backside of its founder and (now former) CEO. SAS must be grinning about what it means for SAS.
Jul 11, 2019, 4:44 pm
#22
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Jul 11, 2019, 5:24 pm
#23
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SAS shares have risen in value by 10+% within the last 7-10 day period.
For someone who has had nearly 20% (if not more) of the equity in the company which they founded and been CEO to be given the boot and terminated effective immediately from board decision, that is generally to be categorized as “undramatic”? That isn’t how I would word it. While it was predictable that he would eventually be pushed out the door or want to walk off stage due to NAS’s struggles, that doesn’t mean it was completely devoid of drama in one or more ways.
There seems to be a lot of face-saving going on even with the spun departure announcement from Kjos himself too. If there was no drama, why wouldn’t the board keep him in the CEO role until a permanent replacement was found? Why wouldn’t he choose to stay on until the board found a permanent replacement.
”Steps down effective immediately” vs “announced stepping down effective x future date”? Guess which one tends to have less drama behind it? The one where you are to stay on for at least some days beyond the announcement day.
NAS’s troubles are good for SAS? I would expect it to be, if it means NAS will be cutting back even more big time on its own metal and now more eager to be bought up in a competition-eating acquisition/strategic partnership.
There seems to be a lot of face-saving going on even with the spun departure announcement from Kjos himself too. If there was no drama, why wouldn’t the board keep him in the CEO role until a permanent replacement was found? Why wouldn’t he choose to stay on until the board found a permanent replacement.
”Steps down effective immediately” vs “announced stepping down effective x future date”? Guess which one tends to have less drama behind it? The one where you are to stay on for at least some days beyond the announcement day.
NAS’s troubles are good for SAS? I would expect it to be, if it means NAS will be cutting back even more big time on its own metal and now more eager to be bought up in a competition-eating acquisition/strategic partnership.
Last edited by GUWonder; Jul 11, 2019 at 5:44 pm
Jul 11, 2019, 5:43 pm
#24
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For someone who has had nearly 20% (if not more) of the equity in the company which they founded and been CEO to be given the boot and terminated effective immediately from board decision, that is generally to be categorized as “undramatic”? That isn’t how I would word it. While it was predictable that he would eventually be pushed out the door or want to walk off stage due to NAS’s struggles, that doesn’t mean it was completely devoid of drama in one or more ways.
There seems to be a lot of face-saving going on even with the spun departure announcement from Kjos himself too. If there was no drama, why wouldn’t the board keep him in the CEO role until a permanent replacement was found?
”Steps down effective immediately” vs “announced stepping down effective x future date”? Guess which one tends to have less drama behind it? The one where you are to stay on for at least some days beyond the announcement day.
NAS’s troubles are good for SAS? I would expect it to be, if it means NAS will be cutting back even more big time on its own metal and now more eager to be bought up in a competition-eating acquisition/strategic partnership.
I am surprised that they even turned a profit this year, but I have not had time to read the numbers to see if they have some creative steps to look profitable. Even if minimally so.
Jul 18, 2019, 9:52 am
#26
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Another example is Copenhagen-Stockholm. The distance between the 2 citys is around 700KM. Copenhagen has a population around 600.000 people. Stockholm is around 1 milll. Sydney is around 4.6 mill. Melbourne is around 4.4 mill. There are more daily flights between CPH and ARN than between SYD and MEL and you can get between the 2 cities by train every hour in about 6 hours.
SYD-MEL is the second busiest domestic route in the world with 54.000 flights yearly. Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericros...-in-the-world/
Svantevit
Jul 18, 2019, 9:53 am
#27
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As the crow flies, SYD-MEL is 706km
As the crow files, HAM-FRA is 412km.
As the crow flies, CPH-ARN i s 548km
There are almost 8 times as many flights between Sydney and Melbourne as there are between CPH and ARN. In fact, Sydney to Melbourne is the second-busiest flight corridor in the entire world, with more than 9 million passengers per annum. Europe gets barely a look-in on the list of 100 busiest air corridors, with the first European entry being Izmir to Istanbul-Atatürk, in 32nd place overall with 3.5 million passengers per annum, and the second European entry being Izmir to Istanbul-Sabiha Gökçen in 70th with 2.6 million passengers per annum. The only other European route in the Top 100 is also a Turkish domestic route - Ankara to Istanbul-Sabiha Gökçen.
Wikipedia - list of world's Top 100 busiest air corridors (2017 figures)
As the crow files, HAM-FRA is 412km.
Wikipedia - list of world's Top 100 busiest air corridors (2017 figures)
Jul 18, 2019, 1:56 pm
#28
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Sweden is even studying the re-introduction of night "Hotel trains" to Germany (the only way in which rail travel can be time-competitive with flying over a long distance).
Berlin -> Malmo https://www.snalltaget.se/en/destinations/berlin
Jul 18, 2019, 3:33 pm
#29
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Well, Night Trains are already running between Sweden and Germany as of today.
Berlin -> Malmo https://www.snalltaget.se/en/destinations/berlin
Berlin -> Malmo https://www.snalltaget.se/en/destinations/berlin
Snalltaget’s network and frequency of service is dwarfed by SJ. And I say that as someone who makes a lot of use of Snalltaget night trains for skiing and otherwise.
Jul 18, 2019, 5:19 pm
#30
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As we were discussing trains I took the distance the trains roughly travel. And FRA I've already written was a typo. I meant MUC. But end of the day. The difference in distance between the 3 routes are so small that you can compare them.