STORY: Troubled Scandinavian airline SAS has warned that its problems are far from over.

On Wednesday (November 30) it reported a much deeper deficit.

Its pretax loss for the fiscal fourth quarter jumped to about $161 million - not far off double the number a year earlier.

The carrier says it will also take longer than expected to emerge from bankruptcy protection in the U.S.

SAS says that may now take until the second half of next year.

Moves to cut costs are ongoing.

On Tuesday (November 29), SAS agreed a new deal with cabin crew unions.

Back in July it reached a deal with most pilots following a strike that halted may of its services for two weeks.

It has also renegotiated the leases on many of its jets.

SAS now wants to raise new equity as well as cutting costs, but has met a mixed response.

Its biggest shareholders are Sweden - which says it won’t put in any more cash - and Denmark, which says it might.

Shares in the firm have lost half their value this year.

They were down another 1% in Wednesday afternoon trade.