SAS Group confirms receipt of Statement of Objections from the EU Commission

SAS Group confirms receipt of Statement of Objections from the EU Commission 

SAS Group confirms that it has received a Statement of Objections from the
European Commission within the framework of an industry-wide investigation of
the air cargo sector, involving a large number of cargo companies and air
carriers, including SAS Cargo. 

In the Statement of Objections the EU Commission alleges that certain
investigated practices in the air cargo sector constitute infringements of EC
competition rules. SAS Group intends to review the Statement of Objections
immediately and will also have to review the underlying documentation as soon as
it has received access to the Commission's comprehensive investigation file.
Therefore SAS cannot comment on the alleged irregularities until this review has
been completed.

“Infringement of competition rules is entirely unacceptable and we condemn it
unreservedly. SAS has, for many years, had a strict policy in place for
compliance with competition rules as well as various control mechanisms. It is
very unfortunate and a serious problem if our policy has not been respected by
all employees of SAS Cargo. If infringements have occurred I will do my utmost
to ensure that this will not occur again,” says SAS Group President & CEO Mats
Jansson. 

SAS Group has in its financial reports since May 2006 (interim report January -
March 2006) disclosed that the European Commission and the U.S. Department of
Justice are conducting investigations regarding possible price coordination in
the air cargo industry and that SAS Group is cooperating with the authorities. 

“Although we do not know the final outcome in this matter, we have already taken
steps and measures to ensure that all of our employees are aware of the
importance of complying with our policy. We will also reinforce our ongoing work
on compliance with competition rules in all parts of the Group through extra
training for our staff and by introducing more control mechanisms”, says Mats
Jansson.
As the next step in this process, SAS will provide the EU Commission with
written comments to the allegations set out in the Statement of Objections. It
is not possible to predict the outcome of the investigations for SAS Group and
what the financial impact will be until SAS has had the opportunity to review
the details of the Statement of Objections. The EU Commission's final judgment
of this matter is not expected to be known before late in 2008.  

A more comprehensive statement on how SAS views the allegations and how they are
expected to impact the SAS Group will be issued as soon as the Statement of
Objections has been reviewed in detail by SAS. This statement will be issued no
later than in conjunction with the presentation of SAS Group's 2007 year-end
report in February 2008.

For further information, please contact
Claus Sonberg, EVP SAS Group Corporate Communications & Investor Relations, +46
70 997 1660

SAS Group Corporate Communications