The shake-up continues at Scandinavian Airways following its official entrance into the SkyTeam alliance.
A day after the Stockholm-based service introduced new nonstop service to Seattle-Tacoma Worldwide Airport (SEA), SAS introduced a significant enlargement of its Copenhagen hub, together with two new North American routes.
On Wednesday, SAS unveiled 15 new routes from its Copenhagen Airport (CPH) base, with greater than a dozen new flights to European cities like Krakow, Poland; Madrid; Budapest, Hungary; Valencia, Spain; and Bucharest, Romania. Plus, it is upping its service to further short-haul European cities similar to Prague, Berlin and Helsinki by 15%.
It is only one a part of a plan to spice up Copenhagen’s presence as a world hub and a gateway for vacationers connecting to locations past Europe, SAS mentioned Wednesday.
However the service can also be bolstering its transatlantic schedule — and never simply in Copenhagen.
The airline mentioned Wednesday that it’ll launch new service in late March from Oslo Airport (OSL) in Norway to New York’s John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport (JFK). The nonstop service will run between March 30 and Oct. 25 as a part of the service’s summer season 2025 schedule.
SkyTeam hub shift
That is the most recent maneuver SAS has made to make its community — together with within the U.S. — extra pleasant to SkyTeam connections after the service joined the alliance earlier this month following a partial acquisition by Air France-KLM.
You may already see the shift. The beneath map from aviation analytics agency Cirium reveals SAS’ deliberate summer season 2025 U.S. routes to the hubs of SkyTeam companion Delta Air Traces.
This is what the comparably extra restricted map regarded like in the summertime of 2024 — a yr that already noticed the service add Delta’s house, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Worldwide Airport (ATL), to its community.
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It is value watching whether or not the service makes any further shifts from Star Alliance hubs to SkyTeam ones within the close to future.
“With the latest entry into SkyTeam, SAS is specializing in international attain and can proceed to develop Copenhagen as its important hub for worldwide journey,” SAS mentioned in an announcement Wednesday.
New JFK service
The brand new JFK-to-OSL route will give the New York airport a second nonstop to Norway’s capital metropolis. Norse Atlantic Airways presently flies the route.
From the outset in late March, SAS will fly the JFK-to-Oslo route with one among its narrow-body Airbus A321neo jets, in response to the service’s reserving channels.
It is value noting that SAS does already service JFK with nonstop flights to CPH.
In the meantime, it presently serves close by Newark Liberty Worldwide Airport (EWR), a Star Alliance hub, with nonstop flights to OSL, CPH and Stockholm Arlanda Airport (ARN).
Copenhagen development
Along with its JFK nonstop service, SAS introduced a further new North American flight for summer season 2025. Beginning March 30, the service will fly from CPH to Toronto Pearson Airport (YYZ).
This broader scaling up of SAS’ footprint in Copenhagen comes as the town — and, extra broadly, the nation of Denmark — has seen elevated air visitors of late.
Service to Denmark rising
In August, the variety of seats on transatlantic flights to Denmark exceeded every other nation in Europe, Cirium reported throughout a latest briefing.
Seats between the U.S. and Denmark this summer season had been up about 24% versus a yr in the past — and by 15% over 2019 ranges, Cirium information reveals.
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Improved intra-Europe enterprise choices
On prime of bolstering its flight choices subsequent summer season, SAS is reportedly planning to up its sport within the entrance of the plane.
On short-haul European flights, there will probably be an improved business-class providing that includes an empty center seat, plus enhanced service each on the bottom and within the air.
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