FOLLOWING a better-than-expected third winter season on the Dubai-Copenhagen route, SAS Scandinavian Airlines resumed it’s fourth winter season with four weekly services in November 2010.
“2010 was a challenging year. Considering that, our third winter season of the Dubai-Copenhagen service of SAS Scandinavian Airlines actually performed far better than we thought it would,” said Stefan Eiche, SAS Scandinavian Airlines UAE general manager. “During the months of February and March, our flights were fully booked. Additionally, due to a rapidly increasing number of internet users in the UAE, our online bookings, which can be done through www.flysas.ae, have also seen a remarkable growth.”
SAS is one of the few airlines operating ‘economy extra’ cabins, which are available on the Dubai service and Eiche would like to make the route a year-round operation but SAS currently does not have enough wide-body aircraft to cover it as the A340 is currently in use on US routes during the summer months. “We see potential, but not right now,” he added.
In terms of new routes, SAS plans to start flights to New York in May and codeshare on Copenhagen and Shanghai in February. “Even if we don’t physically fly the Dubai-Copenhagen route during the months of April to October of this year, it will be as if we still do, as passengers bearing an SAS ticket on Lufthansa’s code-share will be treated with all the privileges of an SAS passenger,” added Eiche.
For 2011 SAS has simplified its rates so travellers can benefit from a base price and is also testing internet onboard for passengers on selected aircraft in the domestic and European sectors which may be installed on inter-continental flights, depending on customer demand.
The SAS Group has a clear environmental policy and associated environmental objectives and it recently received the ISO 14001 and EMAS certification from Bureau Veritas. This means the group (which includes SAS, Blue1 and Widerøe) is the only one in the world to have both certificates. The air freight business, SAS Cargo, was already ISO 14001 certified and has now added EMAS.