New move after Alitalia purchase
Air France KLM is in talks with SAS over buying a stake in the Scandinavian carrier, a report in the French press claims.
The reported move comes a day after AF KLM bought a 25% stake for €323m in the re-vamped Alitalia.
A French newspaper quoted an Air France source as saying that SAS had approached it and the two sides had now begun informal discussions.
Reuters said there was no comment from either airline on the report.
It quoted a SAS spokeswoman as saying: "We confirm, as we have done earlier, that we are in a process where we are looking at structural possibilities, that discussions are ongoing concerning structural measures."
SAS was last year reported to be in talks with Lufthansa about the German carrier taking a possible stake but the talks came to nothing.
SAS, like other carriers, has been hit by the economic downturn and the fall in demand.
Earlier this week it reported a 12.5% year-on-year fall in December passenger traffic and said it expected to cut capacity further this year.
The airline which is jointly owned by the governments of Sweden, Norway and Denmark has also signed an agreement to sell its majority stake in Spanair.
SAS also holds a 20% stake in the UK carrier bmi which it is also said to be willing to sell.
www.sas.com www.airfrance.com www.lufthansa.com
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