SAS, Scandinavian Airlines

Scandinavian Airlines System or SAS is a multi-national airline for Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and the leading carrier in the Scandinavian countries, based in Stockholm, Sweden and owned by SAS AB. It is a founding member of the Star Alliance. more...

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It is also the founder of Air Greenland, Linjeflyg, Spanair, Thai Airways International and the former charter airline Scanair. SAS operates out of three primary hubs, Stockholm-Arlanda Airport, Copenhagen Airport and Oslo Airport, Gardermoen. In 2006 Scandinavian Airlines had 25 million passengers and the SAS Group had 38.6 million passengers.

History

The airline was founded on August 1, 1946, when Det Danske Luftfartselskab A/S, AB Aerotransport, and Det Norske Luftfartselskap AS (the flag carriers of Denmark, Sweden and Norway) formed a partnership to handle intercontinental traffic to Scandinavia. Operations started on September 17, 1946. The companies coordinated European operations in 1948 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.

In 1954, SAS became the first airline in the world to operate a trans-polar route. It was from Copenhagen to Los Angeles, stopping in Søndre Strømfjord in Greenland, and it became popular with Hollywood celebrities and production people when travelling to Europe. The route was a publicity coup for the airline, which became well known as a result. Thanks to a price structure which allowed free transit to other European destinations these trans polar routes were enormously popular with American tourists in the 1950s. It would later operate trans-polar routes to East Asia.

In 1957, SAS was the first airline to offer "round the world service over the North Pole" via the North Pole shortcut, Copenhagen-Anchorage-Tokyo. SAS entered the jet age in 1959 when the first jet aircraft, the Caravelle, entered service. In 1971, SAS put its first Boeing 747 jumbo jet into service.

SAS gradually acquired control of the domestic markets in all three countries by acquiring full or partial control of local airlines, including Braathens and Widerøe 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 which, along with Lufthansa, own 49.9% of the carrier. SAS bought 95% of Spanair, the second largest airline in Spain as well as Air Greenland. There are plans to dispose of all of these holdings.

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 attempted to merge with KLM, Austrian, and the defunct carrier, 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. SAS employs 9147 staff.

Read more at Wikipedia.org