Frequent flyers in Scandinavia have had to accept a lot of changes to SAS this year.
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If you haven’t flown with Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) in a while, you may have missed a lot of recent news that has shaken up the airline market in the Nordic region.
SAS, once the flag carrier of the three Scandinavian countries, is now mostly owned by private investors and a different airline group.
The founder member of Star Alliance has quit the group in favor of SkyTeam, resulting in a major change to codeshare agreements and other partnerships. New route announcements hint at some of the changes to come in 2025 and beyond.
A Financial Rescue
2024 saw the completion of a deal that saved the airline. Back in July 2022, the future looked bleak for SAS as it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York.
This action followed a couple of years of financial trouble caused by the pandemic, and just one day after hundreds of SAS pilots went on strike over unresolved salary negotiations.
Chapter 11 protection enabled SAS to focus on finding a financial solution, which involved a major restructuring of the company with several new investors involved in a rescue package totaling one billion U.S. Dollars.
Although it was not unexpected that another airline might be involved in the rescue package, it surprised many industry analysts when the Air France-KLM group took a 19.9% stake in SAS.
Castlelake Investment Fund led the rescue investment, while Lind Invest and the Danish government also agreed to pour new funds into the airline.
Lengthy regulatory approvals took place in Europe and the U.S. before the transaction was completed in August, 2024.
Interesting to note is the provisions in the deal that would allow Air France-KLM to take a controlling stake in SAS after a minimum of two years.
Switch To SkyTeam
One condition attached to the new investment was that SAS would move from Star Alliance to SkyTeam, home of both Air France and KLM. It’s not unheard of for airlines to switch alliances, but SAS’ status as a founder member of Star Alliance gave this move an element of surprise.
The move to SkyTeam occurred on September 1, since when SAS EuroBonus Gold members have received SkyTeam ElitePlus member benefits across SkyTeam partner airlines.
For frequent SAS flyers, this means improved connections and experiences on SkyTeam airlines including Aeromexico, Air France, Delta, KLM, Virgin Atlantic, and a slew of airlines in China and Southeast Asia.
However, all is not lost for SAS EuroBonus members who frequently fly on Star Alliance airlines. Member airlines have announced a status match program for those holding status with SAS EuroBonus.
Participating airlines including Air Canada, Lufthansa Group airlines, and United. Conditions vary between the airlines and the status match is only available until November.
As part of the switch to SkyTeam, SAS made some adjustments to its EuroBonus program to bring it in line with other SkyTeam airlines.
New Routes, Copenhagen Hub
In recent years, SAS had begun to move away from its former three-hub model in order to focus on Copenhagen as a sole long-haul hub. A recent announcement confirms this status, with 15 new routes from Copenhagen including a new destination in North America.
The eye-catching new route sees the return of a direct link from Seattle to Scandinavia for the first time in decades.
Scandinavian Airlines CEO Anko van der Werff said the route, which launches in May 2025, will “strengthen the connection between Scandinavia and the Pacific Northwest, a region of growing economic importance with deep Scandinavian roots.”
The Seattle route will connect SAS passengers with Delta Air Lines, Seattle’s second most popular airline, following confirmation of the codeshare agreement between the two airlines.
The Copenhagen hub expansion includes not only new routes but an increase in the frequency of existing services to key Nordic destinations like Stockholm, Oslo, and Helsinki, designed to bring connecting passengers to Copenhagen.
There’s also set to be new connecting flights into Copenhagen from Billund, Kristiansand, Harstad/Narvik and Bodø.
SAS is continuing to announce codeshares, with Virgin Atlantic the latest SkyTeam partner to confirm arrangements.