COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Scandinavia’s tri-nation airline SAS AB plans to cut 6,000 jobs — 40 percent of its work force — through asset sales and layoffs while reducing pensions and salaries for remaining staff in a plan the CEO called the “final call” for the troubled carrier.

SAS is struggling to compete with budget airlines, which are increasingly dominating European air travel, despite a series of cost-cutting drives in the past decade.