The German airline Condor terminated its cooperation with SAS's new partner company Smartlynx in January. The reason was reportedly quality problems with the Latvian operator, writes Check-in.
On Monday, it emerged that SAS had signed a so-called wet lease agreement with Latvian airline Smartlynx for eight Airbus A320-200 aircraft, which will be based in Stockholm and fly in SAS's summer program between April and October. The planes will be manned by crews from Smartlynx's Estonian subsidiary - a total of approximately 240 people, according to Check-in.
Now the aviation news site reports that Smartlynx, which has previously been accused of quality deficiencies by ex-partner Norwegian, among others, was hit as recently as January when German partner Condor cancelled a current contract, citing poor quality, both in the aircraft themselves and in the cabin crew's language skills.
However, this does not seem to worry SAS:
”"They (Smartlynx) meet all the requirements placed on airlines in Europe, and we feel confident that they will be able to take our travelers where they want, when they want and in a safe way that we can be satisfied with. Safety is the most important parameter for all airlines and nothing that we compromise on," says Alexandra Lindgren Kaoukji, press manager at SAS to Check-in.
Source: DI.SE
