Ask Scandinavian Airlines CEO Anko van der Werff about the airline’s network strategy and he’ll respond with a riddle.
“Someone is at the North Pole and takes a step to the right, which direction are they traveling?” he joked in an exclusive interview with TPG. “Everyone thinks it’s the east, but of course it’s the south, because when you’re literally at the North Pole, well, everything is in the south.”
The same goes for SAS. With hubs at Copenhagen Airport (CPH) in Denmark, Oslo Airport (OSL) in Norway and Stockholm Arlanda Airport (ARN) in Sweden, it’s all in the south for the airline.
That’s why SAS is investing in its hub at CPH (its only “global hub,” according to its most recent annual report) and expanding its ties with its new minority owner, Air France-KLM Group, and its partners, including Delta Air Lines and Korean Air.
The result is a kind of neo-Viking force. Since emerging from bankruptcy in 2024, SAS has introduced numerous product improvements, from the business class return on short-haul flights to High-speed Wi-Fi on board of SpaceX’s Starlink. It has also added at least six new intercontinental routes to destinations such as Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) and Seoul, South Korea’s Incheon International Airport (ICN), and ordered at least 45 new Embraer E195-E2 aircraft to support its growth in Europe.
“We can bring the North to the negotiating table,” van der Werff said. “In this way we strengthen the Air France-KLM group.”
The Paris-based group today owns almost a fifth of SAS and is in the process of raising that bet to 60.5% at the end of 2026.
Joining Air France, KLM and Delta across the North Atlantic
“I’m leaning towards joint ventures,” van der Werff said of SAS’s long-term strategy.
That’s not a surprise. Van der Werff was Aeroméxico’s chief commercial officer when the airline implemented its joint venture with Delta in 2016, and before that, he held various positions at KLM, an airline whose involvement in a transatlantic joint venture dates back to 1993, and Northwest Airlines, which has since been acquired and assimilated into Delta in the 2000s. The immunized agreements allow the airlines to coordinate everything from schedules and fares to revenue and cost sharing, as well as co-sell flights. of its partners.
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Integrating SAS into Air France and KLM’s transatlantic pact with Delta and Virgin Atlantic could greatly benefit the airline, enabling everything from expanding its sales reach to Delta’s huge loyalty base in the US to feeding more travelers at its CPH hub. But while joining the joint venture is at the top of van der Werff’s to-do list, it’s not something he can do alone.
“I think we should really start soon,” he said, noting that talks to include SAS in the joint venture have not started.
“It’s something we all believe in, but hey, the regulatory approval processes, let’s also see when to proceed with that,” van der Werff continued.
Van der Werff’s comments come as competitors are already taking steps to expand their joint ventures. In September, the Lufthansa Group requested the US Department of Transportation. include the Italian ITA Airways in its transatlantic pact with Air Canada and United Airlines.
The owner of British Airways and Iberia, International Airlines Group, is considering an investment in TAP Air Portugal and at the same time accelerate organic growth on their own airlines.
Air France and KLM, according to public statements, appear focused on increasing their stake in SAS before proceeding with commercial agreements.
“This new step would allow Air France-KLM and SAS to fully unlock their synergy potential through comprehensive integration across all business areas, including loyalty, and would extend beyond commercial activities,” the group stated. saying in July.
Copenhagen: Europe’s next great center?
One of SAS’s weakest points has long been its three northern centers that serve more than 20 million people spread across a region larger than Texas. The result has been three undersized hubs and duplicated long-distance routes in an era when the size and scale of hubs matters.
Van der Werff has set out to change that since taking command of SAS in 2021.
Seats at CPH, the airline’s southernmost hub, are up 38% this year compared to 2023, when Air France and KLM announced their investment at SAS, according to scheduling data from aviation analytics firm Cirium. Seats at the other two SAS centers, ARN and OSL, increased by 12% and decreased by 2%, respectively.
The shift from SAS to CPH is most dramatic for intercontinental flights. Excluding Europe, CPH seats rose 30% compared to a 51% drop in ARN and a 2% drop in OSL, Cirium schedules show.
“Norway and Sweden [are] “It’s really important and we’re clearly developing our markets there, but if you start with widebodies, it makes a lot of sense to centralize them in a central point and really start competing with the likes of Heathrow, Frankfurt, Paris and Amsterdam,” van der Werff said. “There is a lot of traffic that is being absorbed from our network and going south.”
Despite recent capacity changes, SAS’s CPH center remains much smaller than any of the competing centers van der Werff mentioned. The airline plans to fly 7.9 million seats from the Danish capital this year, compared to British Airways’ 24.5 million from London Heathrow Airport (LHR) or Air France’s 22.6 million from Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG), Cirium scheduling data shows.
A larger CPH hub is also suitable for Air France and KLM. The Dutch government wants reduce the number of flights at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS), the group’s second center by number of seats, in the name of noise. CPH could act as a growth valve for the group if the number of flights at AMS is reduced.
No word yet from van der Werff on new routes to the US in 2026; He declined to comment on that topic. On the intercontinental front, SAS has announced new services to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (BOM) in Mumbai, India, and Ben Gurion Airport (TLV) in Tel Aviv next year.
SAS ‘underindexed’ on long-haul aircraft
One challenge SAS faces in growing its CPH center is aircraft availability. The airline ordered up to 55 Embraer E195-E2 aircraft in July to grow its European network, but with only 15 aircraft with intercontinental capability, van der Werff described it as “underrated in long-haul aircraft”.
SAS’ long-haul fleet includes 12 twin-aisle aircraft (eight Airbus A330-300 and four Airbus A350-900) and three Airbus A321LR.
The airline has orders for only two more A350s, both scheduled for 2026. After that, there will be no more new wide-body aircraft.
“I would like to see a [campaign] “We are working with Boeing and Airbus to further develop our long-haul widebody fleet,” van der Werff said. “I don’t think we’ve reached the maximum yet.”
Getting more twin-aisle planes could be difficult. The wide-body order books of major planemakers Airbus and Boeing stretch into the 2030s, leaving airlines without existing orders with limited options.
Aengus Kelly, chief executive of the world’s largest aircraft leasing company, AerCap, on Wednesday described the market for new wide-body aircraft as “extremely sharp“In terms of demand exceeding supply.
SAS could potentially tap into the order book of Air France and KLM once it is a more integrated part of the group. Air France and KLM together had orders for 53 Airbus A350s and three Boeing 787s at the end of June, their latest fleet plan shows.
As for the Popular long-range single-aisle Airbus A321XLRvan der Werff said he does not believe the aircraft will do much more for SAS than the A321LR.
To keep EuroBonus or join Flying Blue
One question bothering SAS loyalists (and really anyone in the points and miles world) is the future of the airline’s loyalty program, EuroBonus. The program has 8.5 million members and deep ties across Scandinavia, including with the region’s largest hotel operator, Scandic.
Van der Werff made it clear that there are no imminent changes to the EuroBonus. SAS needs European Commission approval of Air France and KLM’s majority investment in the airline before any integration talks with the group flying blue The loyalty program can begin.
“What I’m thinking is a name change at some point where loyalty and loyalty points, and all the tier benefits and everything else, stay with us and stay the same, but maybe there will be a name change and through which you can generate all kinds of other synergies and be part of better deals as part of the family. I think we should explore that,” he said.
Until then, SAS plans to keep doing what it’s doing. That means growing in CPH, even with 40% more places this winter than the past, continues to attract premium travelers by improving its product, from the food to Wi-Fi, and taking advantage of the links it is forging with Air France, KLM and its partners.
But there’s one thing that won’t change at SAS, no matter who owns a majority stake or what joint venture the airline is in.
“We are Scandinavian,” van der Werff said.
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