More record profits, and some losses

State oil company Statoil reported more record profits on Tuesday after another year of high oil prices and major discoveries on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. Two other big companies in which the state has ownership stakes, though, reported some large losses. Statoil remains on a roll, pumping oil revenues and profits into the state treasury [...]

Mysterious flight closed airport

The skies were blue and sunny, the runways clear of snow and ice, and traffic should have flowed routinely  through Oslo’s main airport at Gardermoen (OSL) after a rough winter. Instead, the airport was forced to close on a busy spring afternoon, because of a mysterious aircraft that entered its air space and stayed there. [...]

Employees come to terms with SAS

Financially strapped Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) announced Friday that it has come to terms with its employees’ labour unions after they agreed to slash pay and benefits in another round of major cost cutting. The Danish flight attendants’ union CAU also went along, ending a conflict that had threatened to sink SAS’ entire bailout plan. SAS [...]

SAS threatened by crew conflict

Long-troubled Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) now appears threatened by conflicts within its own ranks of flight attendants. Those based in Norway and Sweden fear demands made by their Danish colleagues can be “fatal” for the airline, and some analysts agree. Newspaper Aftenposten reports that the Danish flight attendants’ union CAU seems to be backing out of [...]

Storms batter northern Norway

Central and northern Norway are being hit hard this week by storms and floods that have cancelled flights, closed roads and halted train traffic. It took 41 hours for passengers on one flight from Oslo to finally reach their destination in the northern city of Alta. The bad weather is also wreaking havoc for already-beleaguered [...]

Flight attendant’s murderer turns himself in

A 58-year-old man from Romania turned himself in to police in Malmø, Sweden on Wednesday, saying he had killed a Norwegian flight attendant for Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) in Copenhagen the day before. “He came in around 4:30pm and said he had taken the life of a woman in Denmark, and that he was the man [...]

SAS flight attendant killed in Copenhagen

A Norwegian flight attendant for Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) was found dead in her hotel room in Copenhagen on Tuesday. Danish police believe she was murdered. Newspaper Aftenposten reported that the 42-year-old mother of two teenagers had spent the night in Copenhagen because she was scheduled to work on an intercontinental SAS flight leaving from Copenhagen [...]

Norway may be willing to sell SAS shares

The governments of Norway, Sweden and Denmark hold controlling shares in long-troubled Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), and now they may be willing to reduce their stakes. All are backing a new issue aimed at boosting SAS’s capital, to reduce job losses and keep SAS flying, but Swedish government officials confirmed Thursday that they want to reduce their [...]

Business news in brief, February 2010

Young Norwegians slow to pay their bills A collection agency in Oslo told newspaper Aftenposten this week that claims against Norwegians aged 18 to 25 have risen by more than 50 percent in the past two years. Cases rose from 115,621 to 174,142 at collection firm Lindorff, and managing director Heidi Skaaret had two explanations: “For [...]

Tougher times hurt 'julebord' season

The traditional Norwegian julebord , a lavish pre-Christmas party often hosted by companies for their employees, seems to be dying out this year. Layoffs and tight budgets are putting a damper on holiday cheer, with several companies cancelling their parties altogether. ICA, the large grocery store chain, announced late last week that it was cancelling [...]

SAS cuts to hit hard in Norway

Pay cuts demanded by management at long-troubled Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) are expected to hit hardest in Norway, because Norwegian workers are paid higher salaries than their Swedish and Danish colleagues. Around 500 SAS jobs in Norway may be eliminated as well. Few argue that SAS’ Norwegian division must take its share of new cost cuts [...]

More turbulence looms at SAS

Long-troubled Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) had seemed to have won a reprieve earlier this year, when it finally called a truce of sorts with its myriad labour unions. New declines in passenger traffic and ongoing effects of the global finance crisis, though, mean SAS needs to cut costs again, and that’s stirring up new trouble. SAS, [...]