SAS launches flights to Atlanta

Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) will launch its ninth destination in North America this Summer with a new route connecting Copenhagen to Atlanta, the company announced this Tuesday (16).

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Flights are to be operated daily with the airline’s Airbus A330-300 from June 17: the two are currently not connected by nonstop operations. During the Winter season, according to the airline, the route will be ran five times a week with the Airbus A350-900.

This can be seen as one of the first measures following the investment in SAS by Air France-KLM, as the airline refinances its business to emerge out of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. The investment, approved by the Bankruptcy Court in November, has the French-Dutch group holding a 19.9% stake in SAS.

«Through an agreement with Delta Air Lines, passengers can continue their journey on other Delta-served destinations out of Atlanta», stated SAS’ President and CEO, Anko van der Werff, in a press release.

«This development means an expanded offering for SAS passengers, who can look forward to reaching several new and exciting destinations across the Southern USA, Caribbean, and Latin America, all conveniently accessible from Atlanta».

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SAS is currently a member of Star Alliance, but it will eventually leave the alliance to join SkyTeam, of which Air France-KLM — and Delta Air Lines — are members.

Air France-KLM and Delta Air Lines are close partners. As of June 2023, Delta held 2,9% of the European group’s capital. Additionally, the two are members of a major Transatlantic joint venture.

While no announcement in this direction has been announced as of yet, Air France-KLM’s CEO Ben Smith said, in the group’s earnings call for the third quarter of 2023, that Scandinavian Airlines joining the joint venture of which fellow SkyTeam member Virgin Atlantic is also a member would be the «biggest benefit we see in SAS». That would be subject to regulatory approval.

In the press release announcing the new route to Atlanta, SAS also remarked the increase of frequencies in already-existing routes for the next Summer season. Copenhagen-New York/JFK would be increased to «up to two daily flights» (according to the latest schedules on Cirium’s Diio Mi application, 13 weekly frequencies), up from a daily flight last year.

Copenhagen-Boston will see an additional frequency versus last Summer to become a daily operation, while weekly frequencies between Copenhagen and Toronto will increase from three to four.