By New Year's, SAS expects to have paid back money to customers affected by cancelled flights during the corona crisis. But it is far from certain that everyone will have been paid by then, reports Dagens Næringsliv .

This summer, the Swedish Civil Aviation Administration asked both SAS and Norwegian to report on the status of how the companies handle refunds for canceled flights. The deadline for responses was August 21 for SAS and September 10 for Norwegian. Now Dagens Næringsliv has received SAS's response:

”"Based on the knowledge the company has today, SAS assumes that outstanding compensation claims as of mid-July will be handled no later than December 31, 2020. We emphasize that the forecast is based on uncertain assumptions and may change during the coming period," is SAS's message to the authority.

Inger Lise Blyverket, head of the Norwegian Consumer Council, equivalent to the Swedish Consumer Agency, believes that it is unacceptable that SAS has in practice borrowed money from its customers for up to nine months. 

”"It affects consumers' entire confidence in the travel industry. I expect that the available funds that the company has at its disposal will be used to repay consumers with interest," she tells DN.no.

Di reported yesterday that SAS was working on refunds for trips canceled in March and April – four months later.

”"Unfortunately, it is not reasonable," said SAS press manager Freja Annamatz about the long waiting time for customers.

Source: di.se