Scandinavian Airlines has announced a new route to the United States, which clearly reflects the carrier’s change in allegiance.
In this post:
Scandinavian Airlines adds Copenhagen to Atlanta route
As of June 17, 2024, Scandinavian Airlines will introduce year-round flights between Copenhagen (CPH) and Atlanta (ATL). The flights will be daily in summer and 5x weekly in winter. This new service will operate with the following schedule:
SK929 Copenhagen to Atlanta departing 1:10PM arriving 5:10PM
SK930 Atlanta to Copenhagen departing 7:00PM arriving 10:20AM (+1 day)
The 4,603-mile flight is blocked at 10hr westbound and 9hr20min eastbound. The airline will use an Airbus A330-300 for the route, featuring 262 seats. This includes 32 business class seats, 56 premium economy seats, and 174 economy seats.
Currently the carrier’s service from Copenhagen to the United States is comprised of routes to Boston (BOS), Chicago (ORD), Los Angeles (LAX), Miami (MIA), New York (JFK), Newark (EWR), San Francisco (SFO), and Washington (IAD). As of now, routes to all those destinations remain on sale. So it seems that this represents growth to the United States, rather than a replacement for an existing route.
This new route comes as Scandinavian Airlines joins SkyTeam
In July 2022, Scandinavian Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and the airline has been undergoing quite the restructuring. As part of this, the airline is getting an investment from Air France-KLM, and will be leaving Star Alliance and joining SkyTeam.
So while there’s no exact timeline for the airline transitioning from Star Alliance to SkyTeam, it seems pretty clear that this route is motivated by the major changes coming to the airline. Atlanta is of course a massive hub for Delta, with huge connectivity.
While the two airlines don’t yet have a codeshare agreement, you’ll see that Scandinavian Airlines is already selling lots of itineraries on its website that also include travel on Delta.
Bottom line
As of June 2024, Scandinavian Airlines will launch a year-round flight between Copenhagen and Atlanta using an Airbus A330. This new route comes as the airline is transitioning from Star Alliance to SkyTeam, as it prepares to emerge from bankruptcy protection.
It’s not surprising to see this, and I imagine this will be the first of several tweaks to the carrier’s route network. I wouldn’t be surprised to see reduced service to Chicago and Newark, and new service to Detroit, added service to New York, etc.
What do you make of Scandinavian Airlines launching Atlanta flights?
Please add DFW…this would be a huge plus !!!
SAS flies to many star alliance bases, such as SFO, ORD, IAD, BKK, HND, and YYZ. I wonder how fast they would be replaced with SEA, DTW, ICN, MSP, and JFK.
This is a perfect match for SAS. Scandinavians will love the healthy plant-based cuisine Georgia is known for. They'll feel right at home with Atlanta's cleanliness, walkability, and lack of reliance on cars to get around. With great historical sites like the World of Coke Museum, the College Football Hall of Fame, and Stone Mountain, this is sure to be the next hotspot for Nordic travelers to the USA.
Thank you, Mayor Dickens!
Great news - and I will certainly be booking flights on it
Still remember many years ago when Delta had a summer flight ATL/CPH - very convenient from Scandinavia.
SAS seems to have reduced service to Washington (IAD), as my original return flight on June 19th (Wednesday) was rescheduled to the 20th. Big mistake by SAS.
I guess SAS will probably return to SEA again because of this change in alliance.
Any idea when SAS flights will start to accrue/redeem skyteam mileage program miles? I assume they’re still affiliated with Star programs to some degree
Except with regard to trying to redeem UA miles for SAS flights, SAS is still fully into Star Alliance in all of the other ways relevant to me in terms of earning and burning miles and status benefits as a *G. That will change, but I still can’t credit my SK TATL flights to any SkyTeam airline program which I use.
Living in Atlanta, I hope to get to try SAS in the coming years. Our trip to Europe for this summer is already booked on Air France, KLM, and BA but I would definitely like to check out SAS at some point in the future. I would like to see them add a flight to Stockholm as I would really like to visit Sweden eventually!
I just checked the SkyPesos site for ATL - CPH deals and it's still routing people via current partners at high cash/miles prices. Presumably these flights will load soon and hopefully DL/SAS will be running some specials to fill this new capacity. We'll see...speak out if you see something. CPH is on my list for sure...
ATL-CPH on SAS is already bookable with A3 and AV miles for example.
DTW will take a back seat to MSP with regard to service from CPH.
Great I have tickets in June on SAS from EWR.. I bet they move me to JFK?
Some SK flights at EWR may not be able to moved over to JFK so fast. There is the issue of getting slots and gates at JFK, something UA seems to have come to regret a bit since it gave up its presence at JFK.
25 years ago, my primary use for UA was to fly UA internationally out of JFK. UA gave that up and then eventually also gave up on PS service out of JFK.
Some SK flights at EWR may not be able to moved over to JFK so fast. There is the issue of getting slots and gates at JFK, something UA seems to have come to regret a bit since it gave up its presence at JFK. A
25 years ago, my primary use for UA was to fly UA internationally out of JFK. UA gave that up and then eventually also gave up on PS service out of JFK.
No, they have said they are keeping EWR in their press release where they announced this Atlanta flight.
They are NOT replacing EWR with JFK flying this summer. They are adding a new flight at JFK, but not at the expense of their EWR flights, for this summer, at least.
Reduction to Chicago would be a big mistake by SAS.
Why? Skyteam has a small presence in chicago (delta has been too scared to even start lax-ord forever? And, while CPH is a decent O&D sized city, the inherent demand of Cph vs OneWorld and Star in chicago seems minuscule, at best.
Is there that much demand sas would be service that connecting via Cph only to ORD that AMS couldn’t do a better job connecting? To say nothing of the many OneWorld or...
Why? Skyteam has a small presence in chicago (delta has been too scared to even start lax-ord forever? And, while CPH is a decent O&D sized city, the inherent demand of Cph vs OneWorld and Star in chicago seems minuscule, at best.
Is there that much demand sas would be service that connecting via Cph only to ORD that AMS couldn’t do a better job connecting? To say nothing of the many OneWorld or Star options.
Perhaps SAs will keep chicago but it’s going to drop in profitability for them without the strongest alliance member, United, on the other end.
During the pandemic’s emptiest travel days, CPH-ORD survived. ;)
Ironically, SAS didn’t survive as a result of that decision and others. Still doesn’t change they’re going to have no real partners or O&D from chicago
SAS never died. It is just
doing the US court shenanigan thing called bankruptcy in the US to cut costs and to continue to operate with some different shareholders.
The last great hope of SAS has been its TATL service. Its intra-Europe operations have been its main drag.
I get your point but chapter 11 is the death of the current company as it existed off poor choices. Sure. Parts of the infrastructure remain, the branding usually remains but for all purposes, the public company goes away in chapter 11 just like “AMR” doesn’t exist but “AAL” does and any other number of examples from delta to United to LATAM. The entire point of chapter 11 is the death of the old company...
I get your point but chapter 11 is the death of the current company as it existed off poor choices. Sure. Parts of the infrastructure remain, the branding usually remains but for all purposes, the public company goes away in chapter 11 just like “AMR” doesn’t exist but “AAL” does and any other number of examples from delta to United to LATAM. The entire point of chapter 11 is the death of the old company and the ability to take the best parts forward while trying to leave the bad parts in the past
Not disputing that the marketing usually remains from the old company but the old sas as owned by investors is basically gone and rebuilt usually (but not always) with the old owners getting nothing
In this case, the old big shareholder which is the Danish government is going to continue to be the big shareholder unless and until AF-KL decides what to really do longer term with its stake under the new cap table and what is meant to be a de facto call option on even more of SAS. Without its big Swedish government shareholder, SAS is will go even more down the road of being CPHAir than it already is.
@MaxPower - DL may only serve their hubs from O'Hare, but they are the only one of the Big 3 to serve Midway. For some of us based in Chicago, DL is actually much more preferable...for example, most of my domestic travel requires a connection, no matter who I fly, from Chicago, with the exception of a few summer months (when I'm not in Chicago, ironically). ORD is such a pain in the a*** to...
@MaxPower - DL may only serve their hubs from O'Hare, but they are the only one of the Big 3 to serve Midway. For some of us based in Chicago, DL is actually much more preferable...for example, most of my domestic travel requires a connection, no matter who I fly, from Chicago, with the exception of a few summer months (when I'm not in Chicago, ironically). ORD is such a pain in the a*** to get to for many of us Chicagoans, whereas MDW is a breeze, making DL an easy choice. All this said, I have a suspicion that we might see more of DL at ORD now that they have a SkyClub there...
The cargo is an important factor for SAS on the Chicago route.
In future, SAS may stop flying to Newark since it is United's hub and SAS will no longer be in Star Alliance. Flights to New York City will be consolidated at JFK which is a hub for Delta.
I'll be on SAS in June - if they've made the jump by then, that'll net me an extra 7 MQD based on the standard stingy criteria DL uses for partner accruals.
I am very excited about Scandinavian Airlines announcing nonstop service to my airport (ATL). Hopefully this is a sign of more carriers announcing flights to Atlanta in the near future.
I hope so as well! My airport is also ATL so I'm excited for what's to come!