Scandinavian airline SAS Group plans to sell more assets and increase savings to get the troubled company back on its feet.

SAS Group, half-owed by Sweden, Denmark and Norway, is facing dreadful times as the global downturn hits demand. In an interview with daily Dagens Nyheter the company’s CEO Mats Jansson said that tougher savings and further lay-offs are to be expected.

“My vision for the coming two years is to survive”, he said to the newspaper.

At the same time he opens up for sale of SAS Eurobonus, a frequent flyer program of five European airlines that was launched by Scandinavian Airlines in 1992. According to Mats Jansson there are large hidden values in SAS Eurobonus, with its 3 million customers.

The company could be sold to private investors or by a stock-exchange listing. Mats Jansson is looking to sell the company with a prize tag “closer to a billion [kronor] than a few hundred million”.

SAS is currently undergoes a strategic approach called Core SAS, which includes cost initiatives of approximately 4 billion kronor (€364 million, $500 million) and a 20 percent capacity reduction.

In May SAS Group's traffic decreased by 18.1 percent while the in April, the most recent month for which data is available, was down by 11.7 percent, which was below the markets expectations. Also for May, the change in yield is likely to be negative compared to last year.