Scandinavian Airlines parent SAS AB is looking at paring office jobs and introducing seasonal working while finalizing plans to base jets abroad as it moves to extend cost cuts amid intensifying competition. SAS is evaluating “hundreds” of initiatives prior to announcing additional measures and targets in the second half of 2017, Chief Executive Officer Rickard Gustafson said in an interview. Most of the new steps will be added to an existing 1.5 billion-krona ($166 million) program running until 2019. “We always need to do more,” Gustafson said Friday at the group’s headquarters in Stockholm. “After a few years you have to aim higher and find new ways to continue to cut costs. That’s where we are right now.” SAS is fighting to maintain its market share as discount specialists including Ryanair Holdings Plc and Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA continue their expansion while flag-carrier peers benefit from consolidation into bigger, more powerful groups. Some competitors also have a 35 to 40 percent cost advantage since pension and social-security costs are higher in Scandinavia, Gustafson said. SAS, which has a payroll of almost 11,000, wants more employment flexibility, and will consider some people working full-time in the summer and part-time in the low season, the CEO said. It will also review the number of staff in administrative roles and at call-centers, though cuts could extend into other areas. “We are constantly striving for further efficiency measures within our flying operations, ground operations and maintenance, as well as our administration,” said Gustafson, 53, who took over in 2011 after moving from insurer Codan/Trygg-Hansa. SAS, in which the governments of Sweden, Denmark and Norway have a 43 percent stake, will also evaluate how it can improve efficiency in areas including purchasing, supplier contracts and other procedures, he said. Gustafson’s comments shed light on how he plans to deliver on a pledge in SAS’s first-quarter report to address “cost disadvantages” versus more recently established competitors.” He said then it was working on several further measures “to create long-term competitiveness and profitability.” SAS is also bracing for a potential new Swedish aviation tax that’s set to increase costs for the carrier and many of its customers, and could see demand impacted by the April 7 terrorist attack in which a man hijacked a truck and barreled through Stockholm’s busiest pedestrian shopping street, killing four people. Gustafson spoke before the incident. SAS is pressing on with plans to move some jets to locations where costs are lower to better compete with rivals on some European routes. The company said in February that it would seek an air operating certificate in Ireland, with hubs in London and Spain. Malaga and Alicante are candidates for the Spanish operation, Gustafson said, which together with the U.K. would likely host nine of the 157 jets in the SAS fleet. As one aircraft typically needs 10 pilots and 20 cabin crew, 270 flight crew would be based outside of Scandinavia, he said. Discount specialists such as Ryanair and EasyJet Plc already have multiple bases across Europe, while network groups such as British Airways parent IAG SA have a variety of hubs acquired via takeovers, some in lower-cost locations. Norwegian Air is also using overseas bases to add flights from Europe to North America, traditionally one of SAS’s strongest markets. SAS has expanded its inter-continental network by adding flights to Boston, Los Angeles, Miami and Hong Kong in recent years, and has new Airbus Group SE A350 long-haul aircraft due for delivery from 2019.