Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) has announced two new transatlantic routes that will launch in 2023. This comes just shortly after the airline announced plans to launch a Copenhagen to New York JFK flight in early 2023.
Continue reading: SAS Adds Newark Flights From Aalborg & Gothenburg
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Aren't the SK 321LR's premium heavy? I don't see these routes succeeding, to be honest. POS from the US will probably not be strong. Most Americans probably can't find Aalborg or Gothenburg on a map. If this is aimed at Sweden POS, it seems very much of a stretch as well.
I can see Goteborg working with a plane this size, since they'll have onward options with UA at EWR. Aalborg, though... is a small town. I guess it might be attractive to Danes who don't want to deal with CPH (and the attendant transfer through the city), but I can't see that being quite so popular.
I guess Stavenger isn't coming back yet. (Bergen won't see UA again for 2023.)
wonder if they have a deal with Volvo to feed their European Delivery customers through EWR on the Gothenburg flight.
GOT makes sense to me, it is the 5th largest metro area in Scandanavia and should have enough to warrant 3x weekly. AAL on the other hand just leaves me scratching my head. Why would they do AAL before doing Bergen, Stavenger or even Trondheim? They have at least focus cities in those places. They fly nowhere from AAL.
I agree with you, but if you consider United's network from EWR it just might sustain a 3x weekly.
Embarrassed to say I've never even heard of Aalborg before...setting aside my ignorance I thought that maybe it had something to do with cruising which continues to grow faster in the Baltic region than most, but in looking while there are a number of ships that call on Aalborg they all depart out of larger ports like Stockholm, Amsterdam, Bergen, etc. If there are deals to be had it might be a nice mileage run, looks like a pleasant enough place to spend a couple days.
GOT has the industrial basis to make this work, but not AAL. Norway sold all stocks in SAS, no need to expand in NO. Apparently ARN isn’t a big secondary market. Is SAS suddenly a viable company?
The only thing I have heard about Aalborg before is their university has quite a good ranking for Electrical Engineering.
Does SAS fly the A321 to Washington Dulles? I saw one of their narrow-bodied planes at Dulles a couple of weeks ago, and couldn't tell which aircraft it was...
I graduated from the University of Aalborg. It's a small city with some industry, but I don't see how that route makes sense. I'd not expect it to last long.
"Most Americans" also don't even have a passport, so not sure why you're using them as a standard of anything.
"Is there enough premium demand to make this service work"
GOT is for example insanely popular with the well-heeled equestrian competition crowds in New York, SoCal, and especially S.Florida.
In fact, a weakness may be that they're a bit TOO elite, as many are more primed to have private transportation than use such a service as this.
But of course that's only one example. GOT also has a sizable population (570K city, 1.1million metro) and is an automotive engineering and parts managing hub, the latter could be easily used to fill the (limited) cargo space on a TATL A321.
In terms of Aalborg, it’s just up the road (1h) from Aarhus, Denmark’s second largest city. In fact some 1,5 million people live in that part of Denmark.
Aalborg is famous for its aquavit.
I mean, really famous. Not mentioning aquavit in an article about "what's the deal with Aalborg" is almost like not mentioning wine in an article about flying to Bordeaux (BOD).
Even here in Sweden, most people have no other reference to Aalborg than the slightly sweeter, Danish alternative to our homegrown cumin-driven, dry "snaps".
Skål!
SAS being a Star Alliance partner I question the timing of the EWR arrivals. This late at night there aren’t many connecting opportunities. So it will be mostly for New Yorkers
A few hours earlier arrival to catch the last departure bank for United would be better. But with EWR congestion this may be the only option
It’s always good to see more destinations
Not a lot of onward conex at EWR for an 21:00 International arrival. Earliest probably after 22:30 and UA has limited scheduled at hour.
Why the late departure from Europe for these two routes?
If UA connections were important, then the schedule just doesn't work. The westbound flight arrives after UA has shut down for the night. It will require an overnight at EWR to connect. Also SK isn't a member of the UA JV and I don't think they have joint fares.