jamesbrownontheroad

Imagine the scenario. The gate opens for your routine ARN/CPH/OSL shuttle, and you take your seat.

(Let's imagine it's a CRJ, for the ease of having a private conversation with the person sitting next to you.)

Just before the doors close, Anko van der Werff takes the seat beside you.

You have an hour, give or take. What are your top three burning questions for the CEO?

Jetboi

Why didn't you fire 50% of all non-flying personell yet?

SKT-DK

What a bizarre comment� Care to elaborate on who should be fired and why?

Jetboi

Do you really want a longer dissertation on older, larger Scandinavian enterprises and labour protection practices in Sweden? SAS is no different than the rest of them; highly bloated with paper pushers that add little to no value to the operation or successful execution of the strategy.

Not only does this bloat consume company resources, they generate a lot of non-valuable work for the rest of the organization, so it's double trouble.

Trust me, I work high up in a.. let's call it sibling enterprise, with a front seat to the misery.

Nick Art

I'd argue because this is not as easy and simple as it might appear to be. Because of the same reason all other companies with a somewhat bloated staffing pool haven't managed to do the same. Certain regulations and protections preventing moves like this and internal structures and corporate mold which are somewhat opposed to a move like this.

A fun thread idea!
My questions of the top of my head would be the following:
- Where does he see SK in a couple of years? What will they focus on: Holiday airline? Local airline? Full network carrier? Integrated into LHG?
- What does he think are current strengths and what are weaknesses?
- How will they solve the current structural problems? Longhaul network and fleet? Current sheduling issues? etc. How do they plan to fix their LH fleet issues? Just wait for the remaining A359s to be delivered? Get the old ones back? Order more?
- Will HKG ever return?
- How will EB evolve and remain a competitive program, especially for non-scandi residents?

chrisljo

My questions would be:

How large could the mid-size fleet (Embraer or A220 + CRJ) grow to? Could this be a cornerstone of the fleet in ensuring high frequencies, and also help defend the non-capital markeds?

And in the same spirit, how about the A321LR/XLR? Could SAS focus long haul on frequency to partners hubs within their range and only select other long haul destinations from CPH?

And lastly, should SAS again try to take a position in the Nordic (Finland, Baltics)?

copperred

Boomers gonna boom, don't realize they're the actual deadweight, not whoever they're pointing at.
The guy's English is so ham-fisted perhaps his employer should think about cutting their own fat.

copperred

Knowing you'll never have the backing of the state like Finnair, how do you plan to compete within the Nordics against an actor whose survival is assured?

How do you plan to address the shortcomings of airports owned or managed by incompetents like Swedavia as it impacts your business?

If SAS remains independent, do you forsee merging EB into Miles & More like LOT or do you intend it to remain and be actively used as a revenue generating asset beyond the Nordics?

CPH-Flyer

A very simple one. Did you enjoy the food offered?

copperred

"I ate at home"

AreGar

I can actually answer a couple of these for you

I attended the Diamond-meetup in Oslo where Anko was answering some of these questions.

First of all, he appeared very differently in real life than what has been seen on TV and in the media.
My impression is that he truly cares about the company and want the best solution for all. I do understand where he comes from and his views of the company also from the investor side and not only from the staff side.

Anyhow, he does not want to make SAS a low-cost airline. This was said very clearly and he said he doesnt even understand why this question comes up. It almost appeared that he takes it personally when this is suggested and it is way far from what he wants.
He wants to ensure that we have a good full-service company and focus on building a base of the frequent travelers, and make sure that their loyalty gets appreciated and rewarded.
A bigger separation between Gold and Diamond is also being worked on, one of the examples given was the new in-app Diamond chat which is now released.
Since this event was in Oslo, there were no discussions on non-scandi members, but I believe that the ambition of the company is to focus on the Nordics anyhow, so this is probably not anything they are discussing at this point.

The target is to have as much of a unified fleet as possible, including electric planes for the future.

HKG route will not reopen before we are able to fly over Russia, even the route to Tokyo is in danger due to the extreme detour south of Russia.

FlyingMoose

It would be my first question as well padded with the question when he's outsourcing the rest of his flying personnel so they can reallocate funds to their planes, network and customer needs rather than overpaid Scandinavian staff which is the primary reason they can't be competitive or meet expectations in a global industry. If you complain about SK and don't have this as your first question, I think there is some confusion on your behalf.

Second question: When are you going to provide mandatory customer service training with performance based pay for customer facing staff with a public feedback channel where passengers can communicate poor or unacceptable interaction with your staff for immediate termination of their employment?
Third question: When are you going to fix the food onboard?
Optional question: When can we expect lifetime Diamond status and rollover status points?

ung1

I would not underestimate the value of having Scandinavian staff in customer facing roles, which is one of the "premium factors" for SK as a quasi-full service Scandinavian airline, in my mind at least. The service is often more personal. As a comparison, flew AY and SK to Asia in C, SK was a much nicer experience with smiling and caring Norwegian crew compared to AY with outsourced crew that just did the bare minimum required. Of course a lot comes down to training and personal preference (I often find service on QR to be meh). AY has a nicer lounge if you are Emerald, though.

Tomas E

I can answer that question for you, with focus on the latter part of your question: never. Under Swedish employment law immediate termination of employment (avsked) basically requires a crime to be committed by the employee with the employer as a victim. And termination with due notice (upps�gning) must follow a certain process and is only possible on certain grounds. (But contrary to what some in Sweden think, "genuine" large-scale redundancies are in fact easier and sometimes cheaper to handle in Sweden than in many other European countries, with a fairly well-defined "cost" in terms of the number of months notice that must be given. This was practiced by SAS in 2020.)
But surely you know this already, based on the fact that many of your comments on FT include detailed opinions (more commonly negative than positive) about Sweden? And I've seen no political party (at least among those that get >0.1% of the votes) advocate for changes that would transform Swedish employment law to something more US-style, and make immediate termination possible on almost any ground.
In general terms, employment law in the other Nordic countries is similar, but I'm not familiar with the details or terminology used in Denmark or Norway.

chrisljo

In Norway it is similar, firing someone with instant effect almost impossible, firing individuals based on perfomance time consuming but possible, large scale firings based on external factors fairly easy, but you have to follow a process, objective criterias and usually end up paying a few months severance pay beyound the notice period.

All in all a well functional system, at least in the private sector.