Extra supplementary budget for 2024 - Measures in connection with the reconstruction of SAS AB
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns an extra supplementary budget for 2024 regarding measures during the reconstruction of SAS AB. SD argues that the state has been an expensive story for taxpayers as the ownership has not decreased as planned and the shares are worthless today 1. The party is skeptical of state corporate ownership where the state is a minority owner 1. SD believes that state ownership has contributed to an unlawful strike culture and that politics has taken precedence over economic profitability 1. During the reconstruction, large write-downs are required for the state 1. SD demands that the state should withdraw as an owner and that the harmful aviation tax should be removed 1.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Charlotte Quensel (SD)
Madam Speaker! Let me begin by saying that this is a historic day. The Swedish state has been a shareholder in SAS since 1946. But now it ends, and I am the only one from the Committee on Finance who is giving a speech about it.
In May, it will be 58 years since I flew for the first time. It was SAS that took me from Bromma Airport to Ängelholm. The plane was a small propeller plane, and I still remember that I vomited during the entire journey. It was lucky that during that flight I was unaware that this would become my way of commuting between home and the Riksdag, but now with the airline Bra and without motion sickness.
Sweden, Denmark and Norway founded SAS after the Second World War. At that time, there were not sufficient private resources to provide Scandinavia with local airlines that extended down into Europe and westward to the USA and Canada.
In 1984, the CEO of SAS, Jan Carlzon, was in New York to receive the award for the world's best airline. All of Scandinavia cheered with pride. The following year, Jan Carlzon released the book *Riv pyramiderna!* (Tear Down the Pyramids!), which became a must-read book worldwide. He accounted for his view on leadership and why SAS was doing so well.
Extra supplementary budget for 2024 - Measures in connection with the reconstruction of SAS AB
The same year, I had the luck of ending up next to Carlzon at a dinner. Today, it may be difficult to understand how great Jan Carlzon was, but I cannot think of any other Swede I would have preferred to sit next to in 1985. He told me that there was a specific thing behind SAS's success, and that was that everyone within SAS knew why they did what they did. Everyone knew why SAS was better and different than the competitors. Carlzon's thesis was that staff who do not know why they work at the specific company they work for will never have the ability to take the company to new heights, and that was SAS.
Since the 90s came with the banking and real estate crisis and a stinging recession, and SAS's results and status crashed.
Madam Speaker! "If you want to become a millionaire, start with a billion and then launch a new airline." Richard Branson's words apply frighteningly well to SAS. The owners have not become rich, on the contrary. The airline has been an expensive story for the taxpayers. In 2009, the Riksdag authorized the government to reduce the ownership in SAS at an appropriate time. Many governments later, we can state that it has gone that way. Sweden today owns 21.8 percent worthless shares. We therefore own something more today compared to what we owned in 2009, when the government was tasked to reduce the ownership. The share price was also significantly better in 2009 compared to today. On this, the taxpayers have, in order to avoid bankruptcy, had to pump in billions of kronor on several occasions.
The Sweden Democrats are skeptical of several of the state's corporate holdings, especially where the state acts as a minority owner in listed companies. We have therefore on several occasions reminded of the authorization to reduce the holding in SAS.
Madam Speaker! SAS went from being the world's best airline with a staff that loved their workplace to becoming the airline that many times has had to handle a very un-Swedish strike culture, which has contributed strongly to making it impossible for the company to resolve the problems and reach profitability. Professor Hans Sjögren has studied SAS and calculated that the company, over 17 years up to 2015, had 176 conflicts, which is 10 conflicts annually. A total of 147 of them were illegal.
Probably, the state ownership has contributed to the conflicts by the trade unions feeling that they have had political support despite illegal strikes. At the same time, the unions have also pushed on in the knowledge that state ownership all too easily enables refilling the coffers. Many times, politics has also taken precedence over economic profitability. This shows that co-ownership between several states is challenging.
This sour cocktail has resulted in SAS failing for decades to lower its costs and increase productivity in parity with what the competitors have done.
Madam Speaker! In July 2022, the company reached a new low and applied for bankruptcy protection in the USA. With a long-awaited approval of this, SAS proceeded and applied for restructuring here at home at the end of last month. This means that the government needs to act expeditiously to save the part of the state's claims that can be saved. Unfortunately, it will involve large write-offs for the state in order to secure a future for SAS as a company.
If the plan for SAS reaches a deadlock, the state will withdraw as an owner. The small part of our claims that we can count on getting back will be as shares in new SAS. And since the state is not a long-term owner in SAS, which is a prerequisite for the shares in new SAS, the solution is that the allocated shares are placed in a foundation.
When Sweden divests its ownership, it entails that SAS will have Kastrup as its main hub since the Danish state plans continued ownership. It does not mean that we will be left without flight routes. Privately owned airlines will now be able to compete on more equal terms.
Perhaps even more importantly, we should take advantage of our opportunities for something better. I am thinking primarily of the fact that Arlanda is a hub for further travel within the entire country and that the low-valued krona contributes to making Sweden attractive for foreign tourists. I am also thinking of the important issue of removing the harmful aviation tax, something that the Sverigedemokraterna are pushing for in the Tidö agreement.
Instead of worrying about SAS's reduction at Arlanda, we should work to increase tourism in Sweden. It contributes both to a vibrant countryside and to more jobs.
Madam Speaker! Hopefully, SAS will be reborn through the reconstruction and once again become the airline where both management and staff know why exactly SAS is unique. It is a prerequisite for passengers to feel loyalty towards the company and thereby contribute to profitability.
But for the Swedish state share, we have reached the end of the road as owners in SAS. With that, I conclude by moving for approval of the committee's proposal in the report.
The deliberation was hereby concluded.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.