Scandinavian Airlines, usually known as SAS, is the flag carrier of Sweden, Norway

and Denmark, which together form part of Scandinavia.[3] SAS is an abbreviation of

the company's full name, Scandinavian Airlines System[citation needed] or legally
Scandinavian Airlines System Denmark-Norway-Sweden.[4] Part of the SAS Group and
headquartered at the SAS Fr�sundavik Office Building in Solna, Sweden, the airline
operates 169 aircraft to 123 destinations. The airline's main hub is at Copenhagen-
Kastrup Airport, with connections to 109 destinations around the world. Stockholm-
Arlanda Airport (with 106 destinations) is the second largest hub and Oslo Airport,
Gardermoen being the third major hub of SAS.[5] Minor hubs also exist at Bergen
Airport, Flesland, G�teborg Landvetter Airport, Stavanger Airport, Sola, and
Trondheim Airport, V�rnes. SAS Cargo is an independent, wholly owned subsidiary of
Scandinavian Airlines and its main office is at Copenhagen Airport.[6]

In 2017, SAS carried 28.6 million passengers, achieving revenues of 40 billion

Swedish kronor.[7] This makes it the eighth-largest airline in Europe. The SAS
fleet is composed of 157 aircraft consisting of Airbus A319, Airbus A320, Airbus
A320neo, Airbus A321, Airbus A330 and Airbus A340; and Boeing 737 Next Generation
aircraft.[8] SAS also wet leases Airbus A320neo, ATR 72, and Bombardier CRJ900
aircraft.[9]

The airline was founded in 1946 as a consortium to pool the transatlantic

operations of Swedish airline Svensk Interkontinental Lufttrafik, Norway's Det
Norske Luftfartselskap and Det Danske Luftfartselskab of Denmark. The consortium
was extended to cover European and domestic cooperation two years later. In 1951,
all the airlines were merged to create SAS. SAS has been described as "an icon of
Norwegian�Swedish�Danish cooperation".[10] On 27 June 2018, the Norwegian
government announced that it had sold all its shares in SAS.[11][12]

In 1997, SAS was a founding member of one of the major airline alliances, Star
Alliance.
Contents

1 History
1.1 Founding
1.2 Transpolar route
1.3 Jet era
1.4 Acquisition of local airlines
1.5 Star Alliance founding member
1.6 Recent history (2004�present)
2 Corporate affairs
2.1 Corporate offices
2.2 Partners
2.3 Business trends
3 Destinations
3.1 Codeshare agreements
3.2 Interline agreements
3.3 City statistics
4 Fleet
4.1 Current fleet
4.2 Future fleet plans
4.3 Removal of SAS Q400 fleet
4.4 Livery
5 Cabin
5.1 SAS Business
5.2 SAS Plus
5.3 SAS Go
5.4 SAS Go Light
6 Services
6.1 Fingerprint biometric identification
 6.2 EuroBonus
6.3 Fly Home Club
6.4 Hovercraft
6.5 Wi-Fi
7 Awards
8 Incidents and accidents
9 See also
10 References
11 External links

History
Original emblem, displaying each Scandinavian flag as coats of arms, with
surmounting crowns

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Founding
A privately preserved Douglas DC-3 wearing SAS late 1940s-style markings

The airline was founded on 1 August 1946, when Svensk Interkontinental Lufttrafik
AB (an airline owned by the Swedish Wallenberg family), Det Danske Luftfartselskab
A/S, and Det Norske Luftfartselskap AS (the flag carriers of Denmark and Norway)
formed a partnership to handle the intercontinental air traffic of these three
Scandinavian countries.[13] Operations started on 17 September 1946. In 1948 the
Swedish flag carrier AB Aerotransport joined SAS and the companies coordinated
European operations and finally merged to form the SAS Consortium in 1951. When
established, the airline was divided between SAS Danmark (28.6%), SAS Norge
(28.6%), and SAS Sverige (42.8%), all owned 50% by private investors and 50% by
their governments.[citation needed]
Transpolar route

In 1954 SAS was the first airline to start scheduled flights on a polar route. The
Douglas DC-6B flew from Copenhagen to Los Angeles with stops in S�ndre Str�mfjord
(now Kangerlussuaq) in Greenland and Winnipeg in Canada. By summer 1956 frequency
had increased to three flights per week. It was popular with Hollywood celebrities
and film industry people, and the route turned out to be a publicity coup for SAS.
Thanks to a tariff structure that allowed free transit to other European
destinations via Copenhagen, this trans-polar route gained increasing popularity
with American tourists throughout the 1950s. In 1957 SAS started a second polar
route when a Douglas DC-7C flew from Copenhagen to Tokyo via Anchorage
International Airport in Alaska. The flight via Alaska was a compromise solution
since the Soviet Union would not allow SAS, among other air carriers, to fly across
Siberia between Europe and Japan, and Chinese airspace was also closed.[citation
needed]
Jet era

SAS entered the jet age in 1959 when the Sud Aviation Caravelle entered service,
with the Douglas DC-8 then joining the fleet the next year. In 1971, SAS put its
first Boeing 747 jumbo jet into service.[14]
The company logo in the 1980s was made up of stripes in the colours of the flags of
Denmark, Norway, and Sweden
SAS operated flights to Greenland for more than 50 years until March 2003, the
route re-opened spring 2007 until January 2009. The Boeing 767-383ER at
Kangerlussuaq Airport (2001)
Acquisition of local airlines

SAS gradually acquired control of the domestic markets in all three countries by
acquiring full or partial control of local airlines, including Braathens and
Wider�e in Norway; Linjeflyg and Skyways Express in Sweden; and Cimber Air in
Denmark. In 1989, SAS acquired 18.4% of Texas Air Corporation, parent company of
Continental Airlines, in a bid to form a global alliance. This stake was later
sold. During the 1990s, SAS also bought a 20% stake in British Midland. SAS bought
95% of Spanair, the second largest airline in Spain, as well as Air Greenland. An
agreement to divest more than 80 percent of the holdings in Spanair was signed with
a Catalan group of investors led by Consorci de Turisme de Barcelona and Catalana
d'Inciatives in January 2009.[15]
Star Alliance founding member

In May 1997, SAS formed the global Star Alliance network with Air Canada,
Lufthansa, Thai Airways International, and United Airlines. Four years earlier SAS
unsuccessfully tried to merge with KLM, Star Alliance partner Austrian Airlines,
and the now defunct Swissair, in a project called Alcazar. This failure led to the
departure the following year of CEO Jan Carlzon, who was credited for the financial
turnaround of the company starting in 1981 and who envisioned SAS ownership of
multiple airlines worldwide. The ownership structure of SAS was changed in June
2001, with a holding company being created in which the holdings of the governments
changed to: Sweden (21.4%), Norway (14.3%), and Denmark (14.3%) and the remaining
50% publicly held and traded on the stock market.
Recent history (2004�present)

In 2004 Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) was divided into four companies; SAS
Scandinavian Airlines Sverige AB, SAS Scandinavian Airlines Danmark A/S, SAS
Braathens AS, and SAS Scandinavian International AS. SAS Braathens was re-branded
SAS Scandinavian Airlines Norge AS in 2007.[16] In October 2009 the four companies
were once again united into one company, SAS Scandinavian System AB.

With the coming of low-cost airlines and decreasing fares in Scandinavia the
business turned into the red. To be profitable again, the airline had to cut costs.
In a first step the airline sold its stakes in other companies, such as British
Midland International, Spanair, and AirBaltic, and began to restructure its
operations.[17][18][19] This was to save costs by about 23 percent between 2008 and
2011. In November 2012 the company came under heavy pressure from its owners and
banks to implement even heavier cost-cutting measures as a condition for continued
financial support. Negotiations with the respective trade unions took place for
more than a week and exceeded the original deadline, but in the end SAS and the
trade unions reached an agreement that would increase the worktime, cutting salary
between 12-20%, pension and retirement plans, and thus keep the airline flying. SAS
drew some criticism for how it handled the negotiations, in denying facilities to
the union delegations.[20]

In 2017, it was announced that SAS would form a new airline, Scandinavian Airlines
Ireland, operating out of Heathrow Airport and Malaga Airport to fly European
routes on its parent's behalf using nine new A320Neo aircraft.

As part of an environmental initiative launched by SFO, in December 2018 SAS

flights operating out of SFO have been supplied with sustainable aviation fuel from
Shell and SkyNRG.[21][22]
Corporate affairs
Radisson Blu Royal Hotel in central Copenhagen, originally SAS Royal Hotel,
designed by Arne Jacobsen, built in 1960.

During its first decades, the airline built two large hotels in central Copenhagen,
SAS Royal Hotel (5 stars) and the even larger SAS Hotel Scandinavia (4 stars with a
Casino on the 26th floor). After the deregulation of European commercial aviation,
and the crisis afterwards which affected SAS, like many other national airline
corporations, Scandinavian Airlines sold its hotels to Radisson.
Corporate offices
The current head office, the SAS Fr�sundavik Office Building as seen in 2007

Scandinavian Airlines' head office is located in the SAS Fr�sundavik Office

Building in Fr�sundavik [sv], Solna Municipality, Sweden, near Stockholm.[23]
Between 2011 and 2013, the head office was located at Stockholm Arlanda Airport
(ARN) in Sigtuna Municipality, Sweden.[24] The SAS Cargo Group A/S head office is
in Kastrup, T�rnby Municipality, Denmark.[25]

The SAS Fr�sundavik Office Building,[26][27] was designed by Niels Torp Architects
and built between 1985-1987. The move from Solna to Arlanda was completed in 2010.
[28] A previous SAS head office was located on the grounds of Bromma Airport in
Stockholm.[29] In 2013 SAS announced that it once again would relocate to
Fr�sundavik.[30]
Partners

Besides the agreements SAS has with its Star Alliance partners, SAS has strategic
agreements with Lufthansa, Swiss International Air Lines, Austrian Airlines, Air
Canada, and United Airlines. The agreement includes codesharing and schedule
coordination to facilitate improved connections between SAS and its partner
airlines. SAS also co-operates with the other airlines in the SAS Group.
Business trends

The key trends for Scandinavian Airlines Group (which includes SAS Cargo, SAS
Ground Handling, and SAS Tech), are shown below:
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Jan�Oct[a] 2013 2014 2015 2016
Turnover (SEKm) 47,536 39,696 36,524 36,735 33,148 42,182
38,006 39,650 39,459
Profits (EBT) (SEKm) -188 -1,522 -33 543 228 1,648 -918 1,417
1,431
Number of passengers (m) 30.9 27.0 27.1 29.0 25.9 30.4 29.4 28.1 29.4
Passenger load factor (%) 72.3 72.7 75.6 74.9 76.7 75.0 76.9 76.3 78.0
Total unit cost (CASK) (SEK) 0.94 1.01 0.95 0.86 0.81 0.80 0.75 0.79 0.70
Total unit revenue (RASK) (SEK) 0.91 0.92 0.86 0.82 0.82 0.78 0.70 0.80
Number of aircraft (at year end) 181 172 159 147 145 139 138 152
156
Number of employees (average for year) 16,286 14,438 13,723 13,479
1