Ask Scandinavian Airways CEO Anko van der Werff in regards to the service’s community technique, and he’ll reply with a riddle.
“Somebody’s on the North Pole and takes a step to the fitting, what course are they touring?” he quipped in an unique interview with TPG. “All people thinks it is east however, in fact, it is south as a result of whenever you’re on the literal North Pole and, properly, all the pieces is south.”
The identical is true for SAS. With hubs at Copenhagen Airport (CPH) in Denmark, Oslo Airport (OSL) in Norway and Stockholm Arlanda Airport (ARN) in Sweden, all the pieces for the airline is south.
That’s the reason SAS is investing in its hub at CPH — its sole “world hub,” in response to its most up-to-date annual report — and increasing hyperlinks with its new minority proprietor, the Air France-KLM Group, and its companions, together with Delta Air Strains and Korean Air.
The result’s one thing of a neo-Viking pressure. Since rising from chapter in 2024, SAS has unveiled quite a few product enhancements, from the return of business class on short-haul flights to high-speed inflight Wi-Fi from SpaceX’s Starlink. It has additionally added at the least six new intercontinental routes to locations like Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) and Seoul, South Korea’s Incheon Worldwide Airport (ICN) and ordered at the least 45 new Embraer E195-E2 jets to assist its development in Europe.
“We are able to convey the north to the desk,” van der Werff stated. “We strengthen the Air France-KLM Group that means.”
The Paris-based group owns almost a fifth of SAS right this moment and is within the means of raising that stake to 60.5% by the tip of 2026.
Becoming a member of Air France, KLM and Delta throughout the North Atlantic
“I am wired in the direction of joint ventures,” van der Werff stated on SAS’s long-haul technique.
That’s not a shock. Van der Werff was chief business officer at Aeromexico when the service applied its three way partnership with Delta in 2016, and earlier than that, he held varied roles at KLM, an airline whose involvement in a transatlantic three way partnership dates to 1993 and Northwest Airways, which has since been acquired by and assimilated into Delta within the 2000s. The immunized tie-ups enable airways to coordinate all the pieces from schedules and fares to share revenues and prices, plus collectively promote their companions’ flights.
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Integrating SAS into Air France and KLM’s transatlantic pact with Delta and Virgin Atlantic may vastly profit the airline, permitting all the pieces from increasing its gross sales attain to Delta’s large loyalty base within the U.S. to feeding extra vacationers into its CPH hub. However whereas becoming a member of the three way partnership is close to the highest of van der Werff’s to-do checklist, it’s not one thing he can do alone.
“I believe we must always actually begin quickly,” he stated, noting that talks to incorporate SAS within the three way partnership haven’t begun.
“It is one thing all of us consider in, however, hey, regulatory approval processes, let’s examine additionally when to proceed with that,” van der Werff continued.
Van der Werff’s feedback come as opponents are already transferring to broaden their joint ventures. The Lufthansa Group in September utilized to the U.S. Division of Transportation to include Italy’s ITA Airways in its transatlantic pact with Air Canada and United Airways.
British Airways and Iberia proprietor Worldwide Airways Group is eyeing an funding in TAP Air Portugal whereas additionally accelerating organic growth at its personal airways.
Air France and KLM, based mostly on public statements, seem centered on rising their possession stake in SAS first earlier than continuing with business tie-ups.
“This new step would enable Air France-KLM and SAS to completely unlock their synergy potential through a complete integration in all areas of enterprise, together with loyalty, and would prolong past business actions,” the group said in July.
Copenhagen: Europe’s subsequent huge hub?
Considered one of SAS’ weakest factors has lengthy been its three northern hubs serving 20-plus million folks unfold over a area bigger than Texas. The outcome has been three undersized hubs and duplicative long-haul routes in an period when hub dimension and scale matter.
Van der Werff set about altering that since he took the helm of SAS in 2021.
Seats at CPH, the airline’s most southerly hub, are up 38% this 12 months in comparison with 2023, when Air France and KLM announced their investment in SAS, in response to schedule knowledge from aviation analytics agency Cirium. Seats at SAS’ different two hubs, ARN and OSL, are up 12% and down 2%, respectively.
SAS’s shift towards CPH is extra dramatic for intercontinental flights. Excluding Europe, seats from CPH are up 30% in comparison with a 51% drop at ARN and a 2% drop at OSL, Cirium schedules present.
“Norway and Sweden [are] actually vital and we’re clearly creating our markets there however, in case you begin with the wide-bodies, it makes loads of sense to centralize them in a single central level and actually begin competing with the likes of Heathrow, Frankfurt, Paris and Amsterdam,” van der Werff stated. “There’s loads of visitors that is being sucked out of our community and goes south.”
Regardless of the latest capability shifts, SAS’ CPH hub stays a lot smaller than any of the competing hubs van der Werff talked about. The airline is scheduled to fly 7.9 million seats from the Danish capital this 12 months in comparison with 24.5 million on British Airways from London’s Heathrow Airport (LHR) or 22.6 million on Air France from Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG), Cirium schedule knowledge exhibits.
A bigger CPH hub additionally fits Air France and KLM. The Dutch authorities needs to reduce the number of flights allowed at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS), the group’s second-largest hub by seats, within the identify of noise. CPH may act as a development valve for the group if flight numbers are reduce at AMS.
No phrase but from van der Werff on any new U.S. routes in 2026; he declined to touch upon that subject. On the intercontinental entrance, SAS has introduced new service to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Worldwide Airport (BOM) in Mumbai, India, and Ben Gurion Airport (TLV) in Tel Aviv subsequent 12 months.
SAS ‘under-indexed’ on long-haul planes
One problem SAS faces in rising its CPH hub is the supply of planes. The airline ordered as much as 55 Embraer E195-E2 jets in July to develop its European community, however with simply 15 intercontinental-capable plane, van der Werff described it as “under-indexed on long-haul plane.”
SAS’ long-haul fleet consists of 12 twin-aisle planes — eight Airbus A330-300s and 4 Airbus A350-900s — and three Airbus A321LRs.
The airline has orders for simply two extra A350s, with each due in 2026. After that, there aren’t any extra new wide-bodies coming.
“I want to see a [campaign] with Boeing and Airbus on additional growth of our wide-body, long-haul fleet,” van der Werff stated. “I do not suppose we have maxed out but.”
Getting extra twin-aisle planes may very well be robust. The backlog for wide-bodies on the main planemakers, Airbus and Boeing, stretches into the 2030s, leaving airways with out present orders with restricted choices.
Aengus Kelly, CEO of the world’s largest plane leasing firm AerCap, on Wednesday described the marketplace for new wide-bodies as “extremely acute” when it comes to demand outstripping provide.
SAS may doubtlessly faucet into the Air France and KLM orderbook as soon as it’s a extra built-in a part of the group. Air France and KLM collectively had orders for 53 Airbus A350s and three Boeing 787s on the finish of June, its newest fleet plan exhibits.
As for the popular long-range, single-aisle Airbus A321XLR, van der Werff stated he doesn’t see the airplane as doing way more for SAS than the A321LR.
To maintain EuroBonus or be part of Flying Blue
One query nagging SAS loyalists (and actually anybody within the factors and miles world) is the way forward for the service’s loyalty program, EuroBonus. This system has 8.5 million members and deep ties in Scandinavia, together with with the area’s largest lodge operator, Scandic.
Van der Werff was clear that no modifications to EuroBonus are imminent. SAS wants European Fee approval of Air France and KLM’s majority funding within the airline earlier than any discuss of integration with the group’s Flying Blue loyalty program can start.
“The place I am considering, a reputation change in some unspecified time in the future the place the loyalty and the loyalty factors, and all of the tier advantages and all the pieces else, stays with us and stays the identical, however possibly there is a identify change and thru which you possibly can draw possibly all types of different synergies and be a part of higher offers as a part of the household. I believe we must always discover that,” he stated.
Till then, SAS plans to maintain doing what it is doing. Meaning rising at CPH, together with with 40% more seats this winter than final, persevering with to woo premium flyers by enhancing its product, from the food to the Wi-Fi, and constructing on the ties it’s forging with Air France, KLM and their companions.
However one factor won’t change at SAS, regardless of who owns a controlling share or what three way partnership the airline is in.
“We’re Scandinavian,” van der Werff stated.
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