– The state can not make SAS competitive

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– We can only hope that SAS survives. Also out of consideration for the company’s debt obligations to Norway. But if they do not survive, then they do not survive.

This is what the Liberal Party’s deputy leader Sveinung Rotevatn says. Like most of the parliamentary parties, he is opposed to Norway actively joining the ownership side of the crisis-stricken airline.

Norway does not need SAS, Rotevatn believes, but a well-functioning aviation market.

– I do not think it is the state’s task to own an airline. On the contrary, we should now be happy that we sold out of SAS in 2018. It was the right decision, he says.

West: No fresh money

Aftenposten has consulted with all parliamentary parties on how they stand to help SAS out of its financial disability.

It has previously been known that the parties on the right have been skeptical of to remedy the company. When Aftenposten contacted the parties on Tuesday, they replied that their positions remain.

But also on the other side of the political axis, there seems to be a weak mood to buy into the company.

MDG will not help the company. SV has previously stated that they have kept the door ajar. They do not want to elaborate on their position vis-à-vis Aftenposten. The Center Party refers to the government and the Ministry of Trade and Industry (NFD).

But neither does the government seem to have changed its position.

Last week opened Minister of Trade and Industry Jan Christian Vestre (Labor Party) to convert the state’s SAS loan into shares. But he ruled out that the state would pump new money into the company or become a long-term and active owner.

When asked whether the government’s position has changed in light of recent events, NFD states that the government’s position was “clarified last week”.

– Up to themselves

Rotevatn is lukewarm for other forms of crisis help as well.

– Is it a good idea to convert the debt SAS owes Norway into shares?

– No, it does not strike me as a particularly good idea. But I noticed that the Minister of Trade and Industry emphasized that if that happens, then the state does not intend to be a long-term owner. And we can really hope for votes, says Rotevatn.

– If SAS needs subsidies to compete in the market, they are pr. definition not competitive, he says.

He believes the situation now is very different from when the airlines received crisis assistance in 2018.

– The crisis SAS is in now is not due to unpredictable events, neither pandemic nor war. And the strike that is taking place now is a completely ordinary labor dispute. Then it is up to SAS itself and its employees whether the company is alive and well. The state can not help them with that, they have to find out for themselves, says Rotevatn.

Prevent a downward spiral

Red is the only party that wants the state to actively enter as an owner of SAS. Member of the Storting Seher Aydar believes that such ownership is necessary for two reasons: Ensuring a good grid and the employees’ working conditions.

She refers to the ongoing strike. The SAS pilots has accused SAS of smashing trade unions. Many of the pilots who were laid off during the pandemic were offered jobs in one of SAS’s two subsidiaries.

But in the new companies, the pilots are employed on new employment contracts, even though the jobs are identical, according to the pilots.

– SAS exploits the loopholes in the Working Environment Act. Norway should step in on the ownership side and use the ownership actively to clean up the messy working conditions that now characterize the company, says Aydar.

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Aydar points out that wages and labor rights in the aviation industry are constantly being pushed down. Among other things, as a result of tougher competition from foreign low-cost airlines.

– If the state goes back to the ownership side of SAS, one can prevent the downward spiral with poor working conditions in the industry. It would be socially healthy, she says.

– The right thing to do is to enter as an active owner. We should have done that last time as well, says Aydar and refers to the state’s loan guarantees to the airlines in 2020.

– But is it right to go in and subsidize companies that may not be competitive?

– There are many examples of companies the state has subsidized, which were not competitive. For example, Norwegian during the pandemic.

– We see in the aviation industry that low-cost airlines compete to have the lowest wage and operating costs. Then I think it is healthy to keep alive those who take care of other considerations, including climate, in the operation, says Aydar.