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. Coinciding with this, the airline is making a bunch of changes, ranging from launching flights to Seattle, to introducing business class on flights within Europe, to increasingly focusing on Copenhagen as a global hub.
With SAS now being in SkyTeam, Delta and SAS have announced closer ties, though manage your expectations for now.
Delta & SAS launch enhanced partnership
As of September 25, 2024, Delta and SAS have signed a a codeshare agreement, which comes just weeks after SAS joined SkyTeam. The codeshare agreement is intended to improve connection opportunities for customers between North America and Scandinavia.
Delta highlights how this new codeshare agreement offers reciprocal frequent flyer benefits, including the ability to earn and redeem Delta SkyMiles and SAS EuroBonus miles across both carriers. However, that should be possible purely based on them both belonging to SkyTeam, so it doesn’t seem to me like this codeshare agreement is changing that, specifically.
This codeshare agreement will give Delta customers flying from North America access to 50 destinations in Northern Europe, via SAS’ hubs in Copenhagen, Oslo, and Stockholm, while SAS customers flying from Europe will get access to more than 150 destinations in North America, via Delta’s hubs in Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles, New York, and Seattle.
For those not familiar, a codeshare agreement essentially allows an airline to place its “code” on the flight of another airline, essentially marketing that flight. So this means that on Delta’s website you’ll start to see SAS flights with Delta flight numbers, and vice versa. It’s a closer level of cooperation than an interline agreement or mutual alliance membership, but it’s not as close as a joint venture.
While SAS flies to a good number of Delta’s hubs, the inverse isn’t true. Even with Delta’s transatlantic announcement for 2025, there wasn’t a single flight to one of SAS’ hubs.
Will SAS join the SkyTeam transatlantic joint venture?
It’s worth keeping in mind what the long term play is for SAS to join the SkyTeam transatlantic joint venture, which otherwise consists of Air France-KLM, Delta, and Virgin Atlantic.
A joint venture is almost like a merger in a particular market, as it allows airlines to coordinate fares, schedules, and more. While there are some consumer benefits to joint ventures, they’re also the equivalent of eliminating a competitor in the market.
For SAS, joining the SkyTeam transatlantic joint venture would be a huge deal, as it should help the carrier’s yields across the Atlantic. It’s also not surprising to see that the other carriers want SAS to join the joint venture, both due to the useful geography that SAS opens up, and also given the equity investments between these airlines (Delta has a stake in Air France-KLM and Virgin Atlantic, and Air France-KLM has a stake in SAS).
What remains to be seen is if that joint venture ends up getting government approval. These tend to be scrutinized pretty close, and for good reason, given the impact they have on competition.
Bottom line
Delta and SAS are launching a codeshare agreement. With this, Delta will be able to market some SAS flights through its booking channels, and vice versa. This is minor in the scheme of things, given that both airlines belong to the same alliance. The bigger deal will be if/when SAS joins the SkyTeam transatlantic joint venture.
What do you make of the new Delta & SAS codeshare agreement?
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