It’s an exciting time at Scandinavian Airlines (SAS). The airline has just emerged from bankruptcy protection, and now has an investment from Air France-KLM, and has also left Star Alliance and joined SkyTeam.
Continue reading: SAS Turning Copenhagen Into Global Hub, As Part Of New Strategy
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
As if joining skyteam wasn’t bad enpugh… but As a Swede from Stockholm this is such a slap in the face for all the money swedish taxpayers and private foundations (the wallenbergs) have poured into the airline. Not to mention how SAS golden years were all under swedish leadership… the danes are coming for us yet again!
The only reason this is happening is because the Danish government owns 25.8% of SAS.
In what sense is SAS a global airline? It has three hubs (Copenhagen, Stockholm and Oslo) but a very poor network and their fleet does not even compare to that of Finnair. These three countries combined have a population 4 times bigger than Finland's.
It is high time for the restructured SAS to show its true potential.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
For many Swedes on the west coast and in the south, Copenhagen has long been a preferred hub to Stockholm. So much so that at times I've heard announcements at Copenhagen airport made in English and Swedish, rather than Danish!
I'd be surprised if this development leads to SAS becoming significantly more of a "player" than it was before.
The thing is, SAS never had that much of an Asian focus — serving just NRT and PVG until relaunching BKK in late 2023 (all Star Alliance hubs, by the way, which no longer applies) — while Finnair went all-in on Asia, but that strategy cost it heavily between the closure of Russian airspace and the absolute lack of postpandemic demand from China in particular. There’s only so much cooperation Finnair can do with JAL, given how hard it has become to fly betwee HEL (which JAL also serves) and HND/NRT.
As such, SAS would be better off flying to ICN, given its SkyTeam partner Korean Air’s base there — though I presume BKK will remain, given Scandinavian travellers’ love for Thailand (and indeed TG relaunched OSL recently). However, given that SAS is now in SkyTeam, cooperation with TG is off the table — and even though SQ is the one Star Alliance member SK maintains a partnership with, flying to SIN is simply not feasible for SK, as SQ serves CPH as well.
Interestingly enough (unrelated to the above), today marks exactly 5 years when SAS launched its current livery with a big ‘SAS’ on the fuselage — 19/9/2019, and on the same day of the week as well! How much has changed in the last few weeks… and SkyTeam has increased its lead as the alliance with the most non-white liveries, while the Star Alliance now has none, at least until ITA Airways enters.
Air France invested in SAS in order to create a stronger SAS and SAS knows that the fragmented network they had minimized their potential.
Even without a joint venture, they are growing closer to Delta hubs in the US and Delta's route announcement expected on Friday is likely to fit hand-in-hand with SAS' network refocusing. CPH is a strong mid-size local market and has the potential to carry much more connecting traffic not just to northern Europe but to Eastern and Central Europe.
The A321NEO will help offset the sting that Sweden and Norway will feel by allowing SAS to keep some routes from ARN and OSL that otherwise would be cut if only widebodies were left for international flights.
This is not a Danish hub, but a Scandinavian one.
Remember, ties between the Nordic are super strong. The same pax who fly short-haul from Stockholm or Bergen **will** be the same pax who fly from CPH (and soon AMS/CDG) to get to where they need to go.
Or in other words, Skyteam can tap into a population over 27 million and an economy worth over $1 Trillion USD.
For the time being, SAS should focus on North America and EMEA. Leave Africa, South America and Asia to AF/KL. CPH OSL ARN are well positioned to serve Canada and northern US via polar routes.
Also since the completion of the Oresund Bridge Copenhagen and southern Sweden are more integrated than ever. CPH makes more sense as the hub airport to travel to from Malmo than ARN, and numerous other Swedish cities nearby.
I believe they served HKG pre pandemic? It would be nice to see this come back, especially with CX no longer serving CPH, although maybe it's less likely now that they're in SkyTeam and both AF and KLM fly there.
Both a nice cities worth visiting, but actually quite different. It depends what you want to do and see.
Copenhagen is nicely located with lots of water. Is has nice buildings and excellent (though quite expensive) dining.
They should rename the airline too. SAS is no longer relevant.
DAS would be better fit for the new strategy.
Merhaba Gunturk'cum. Seni burda gormek ne guzel. Uzun zaman oldu. Umarim iyisindir.
CPH is a surprisingly dated and unappealing airport. God forbid one has to deal with its baggage claim.
As FNT noted, this new strategy appears driven by Danish government ownership. It will create an odd situation for Stockholm. Will Norwegian and Ryanair become its principal carriers?
It will be interesting to understand what this means for the recently announced BRA-SAS partnership, given that BRA just agreed to move all of its flights from Bromma to Arlanda to feed SAS.
It will also be interesting to see what might happen with the TG relationship, given that SAS set up TG for the Thai government back in the day.
There is a lot to unpack here. Let's start with the Nordic comparisons.
Finnair had remarkable advantages. A geographic position allowing them to provide the quickest gateway to Asia via Helsinki. They had cordial relationship with their big neighbor in the East. With the location, they could roster one (1) A330/340/350 on each route to Asia. This is an incredible advantage, because your fleet make money in the air. They could serve two segments + two turn-arounds in 24 hrs with one aircraft to Asia, or put it in an optimal sling with US destinations. The aim then was to bring UK, German and rest of Nordic traveler to HEL with an optimal hub and spoke. Simply look at the ratio of long-haul vs. short-haul aircrafts of AY vs, SK and it explains a lot of the business.
Two things killed this: first Covid, then the invasion of Ukraine. AY has been extremely nimble with their fleet since. Signing wet lease agreements with both QR and QF.
Iceland Air runs a similar idea for North America via KEF.
SAS on the other hand, has tried to be all things to everyone. Which turns into nothing to nobody. If I am not mistaken, the singles biggest SAS operation is domestic Norway. So for Norway, SAS is a part of infrastructure and national security by enabling population in remote areas. In Denmark, Copenhagen Airport is the largest private employer. And the company has HQ in Stockholm, with vested local interest. This is bound to create issues.
SAS failed IMHO because of this. Too many stakeholders, too many conflicting needs, too little focus. SK was left out of the lucrative Star Alliance North Atlantic Joint Venture whilst a puny airline like SN was in (as a part of LH-Group).
CPH has about 100M people within 60min flight from Poland in the East to most of Northern Germany. I would argue a Berliner or Hamburger should connect in CPH over FRA or MUC. I live near ARN, and everyone here is up in arms. But they don't get this.
For AF/KL it makes a ton of sense as they plan to increase their 19.9% share to create a third hub with the Dutch government's current position. I can also say that the current yields from CPH seems higher compared to ARN/OSL. The DKK is pegged against the EUR, the SEK/NOK is not. Therefore, DKK based income is better for SAS.
I think it's only a matter of time before SAS changes domiciliation and HQ from Sweden to Denmark.
In terms of SAS not investing in Asia. Pre-covid it was TYO. PEK, HKG and PVG. Like many, they have not returned to PEK and HKG. BKK reopened after 12 years.
It makes sense to fly to the US for geopolitical reasons. And it's easier to create good aircraft utilization which they need.
I think there is nothing inherently problematic with trying to be an airline for all of Scandinavia. The issue is the Swedish government dropping out after COVID. They lost ARN as a hub, and they'll probably lose the HQ in Stockholm. They're also about to lose traffic to Bromma, as well as all the revenue from the national aviation tax.
SAS costed a lot of money to the taxpayers, but it filled a social purpose and a public service, and had really good prices and customer experience. Now all there is left is profits for the new owners (private equity).
I think AF/KLM will move some connecting traffic from AMS to CPH due to the Dutch government's greenie shenanigans regarding Schiphol capacity. This shift will provide the passengers to help SK grow its CPH network.
Lots of good points here.
With the Swedish and Norwegian governments out, and thus hopefully no more politicians trying to run a business, the choice for CPH is a logical one. Also from an operations perspective: the long haul fleet of SAS is tiny, so it makes sense to concentrate it at one hub. And, in the current geopolitical climate, ARN is a bit locked away in a faraway corner of Europe. OSL will not see long haul traffic 'as there is no market for it', as has been a stance taken by SAS decades ago (meanwhile about a dozen other carriers operate long haul flights there).
I'm very worried about CPH though. They had to close one runway for maintenance for a few months last year, and it resulted in massive amounts of flights being cancelled and delayed. They had some pre-Covid plans about expansion, and I'm not sure if they actually will proceed. Expansion of capacity (and runways) will be essential for CPH to succeed as a main hub, as the airport is nearly always very crowded these days.
I won't be too worried about AMS and The Netherlands. For what I understood, the Dutch just got a new right wing government which doesn't really have any ambitions to do weird things with their main airport or airline. Besides, we're talking SAS here, not KLM. KLM won't open a hub at CPH.
What I'm really hoping for though, is a clear vision of the route network. Adding a few flights is nice, but quite many smaller European airlines have a vision in their (long haul) route network. Brussels has a focus on Africa, TAP on Brazil, Finnair on Asia. What does SK want to do, who do they want to be? Now that there's no longer an indecisive Rikard in the lead, but an Anko who actually dares to take decisions, I'm hoping for (rather: expecting) more SK news in the near future...
They served PVG, NRT, PEK and HKG pre-pandemic and recently picked up BKK again after a hiatus of a few years. Oh, and BEY actually also counts as Asian. 🙂
I don't think they'll return to HKG, as the city is changing rapidly in a certain direction. PEK was mostly as a feeder for/from Air China, which now has the advantage of being able to fly over Russia, and additionally, SK is not longer in *A. PVG was mainly due to lots of Scandinavian business interests in Shanghai, and Tokyo was a bit of an odd one, as the main hub of ANA is at HND, not NRT. Nevertheless, they seemed to have a full business class most of the times and that's what matters.
BKK was also a *A hub and lots of Scandinavian men have imported a bride from over there, meaning good traffic for family visits. I guess old times sentiments about SK helping to start Thai some decades ago don't really matter.
I don't know if ICN would be a logical choice right now, as they'd have to make a long detour to get there. Perhaps Xiamen, Taipei, Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh would make more sense? They're also SkyTeam hubs and would open up for traffic to both (South) East Asia and Australia/Oceania.
We'll see. It seems that SK is finally daring to make some decisions and that was about time. I'm sure there'll be more route network news to some.
Flew ZRH to SIN last year - and we flew right through IRAN and over Tehran - and then Afghanistan and Pakistan. I guess Swiss are neutral with all nations.
not all countries follow the guidance of western countries but I still wouldn't want, even as a Swiss, to have to divert to Iran. You fly over a country and there is a risk of that happening.
and the US does not allow foreign carriers to put US airline codes on flights that overfly countries that the US does not allow its own carriers to overfly. Probably doesn't matter for LX but those are still the rules.
Good luck SAS. I doubt anyone would ever intentionally want to transit through Copenhagen when it’s much much more convenient to fly their the Gulf or Europe. But hey, there are always some of those people who would choose to fly a circuitous route served by a mediocre airline with horrible food and connecting via a lacklustre Scandinavian airport.
Yet another SAS restructure. Let's see how long before they lose money again. My bet, max 2 years.
Spot on. And, no much of paying Skytrax or Apex or whatever is going to change that.
Why can't SAS serve SIN just because SQ serves CPH? Quite a natural thing for airlines to cover both ways, be they in the same alliances (LX and SQ both serve SIN-ZRH, OS and TG both serve BKK-VIE,...) or different alliances.
The Norwegian and Swedish governments fucked themselves, by Selling their shares in the Airline
No thanks. I’m not fond of airlines and cultures that consider live rats a culinary delicacy…
Please don’t call it Russian conflict - it’s a war against another sovereign nation.
ITA should do the same. Focus on Milan, not Rome. Milan is a wealthy and huge Central European city fit for a hub, while Rome is poor, leisure-based and has inferior geography.
ITA should do the same. Focus on Milan, not Rome. Milan is a wealthy and huge Central European city fit for a hub, while Rome is poor, leisure-based and has inferior geography.