With its new owners, SAS has embarked on a transformation plan designed to set it up for the future
Scandinavia’s SAS, which is the flag carrier for Denmark, Norway and Sweden, may be in a self-declared bankruptcy process, but in typical Nordic fashion this does not mean it has to be miserable.
This was exemplified in February with its ‘Destination Unknown’ flight experience, which offered frequent flyer members the chance to embark on a mystery trip. Over 1,000 signed up immediately for the adventure; they would meet at Copenhagen Airport and the destination of their flight would only be revealed once they were on board the aircraft.
This publicity stunt is a small demonstration of how ‘business as normal’ is a constant refrain since SAS filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US in July 2022.
Battered by significant losses during the pandemic, SAS took the bankruptcy step to advance ‘SAS Forward’, a plan designed to achieve huge cost savings, restructure debt, reconfigure its fleet, and gain a major capital injection “that will allow SAS to participate in the market as a strong competitor for the long term”.
In October 2023, SAS announced a significant moment in that journey with investment giant Castlelake, Air France-KLM and Lind Invest (a Danish family investment office), together with the Danish state, selected as the winning bidder consortium in the airline’s exit financing solicitation process.
“The investment comprises a key step in our SAS Forward plan and confirms that our new investors believe in SAS and our potential to remain at the forefront of the airline industry for years to come,” said Anko van der Werff, President of SAS.
By the time ARGS is published SAS should have exited Chapter 11. It was expected to happen in “early 2024”.
For the carrier, its employees and customers and its business partners, the hope is that the reformed SAS can finally become an airline that is financially strong with a business mission that enables it to grow profitably and sustainably from its Scandinavian roots.
With Air France-KLM now in the picture, that future means SAS intends to eventually exit the Star Alliance and join the SkyTeam Alliance. This is a seismic change for SAS, which was a founding member of Star.
The carrier is also modernising its short- and long-haul fleet by taking deliveries of new Airbus A320neos, the A321LR and the A350. SAS has 12 additional A320neos on order (to be delivered by 2026) and has two more A350-900s on order as well.
One of the most interesting route launches from SAS is its new transatlantic destination, Atlanta, where it will team up with soon-to-be SkyTeam partner Delta Air Lines. To meet rising demand for traffic to the US and Asia, in December, SAS unveiled a major boost in capacity for summer 2024.
This included an increase in frequency on Copenhagen–New York JFK with up to two daily A321LR flights to complement the existing daily A330 service to Newark. Its service will rise to daily using A350s and a fourth weekly flight will be added to Toronto from the Danish capital.
The Asian expansion sees frequency additions for Shanghai and Tokyo and an extension until nearly the end of April for SAS’s winter A350 service to Bangkok from Copenhagen.
In total SAS plans to fly to over 130 destinations in 40 countries during summer 2024. New European routes from Copenhagen are Tromsø, Salzburg and Genoa, with seasonal services to Dalaman and Ibiza.
There will also be seasonal services from Oslo to Geneva and Tivat, plus a service from Bergen to London Heathrow.
