SAS AB (Scandinavian Airlines System Aktiebolag), trading as SAS Group, is an airline

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

headquartered in the

SAS Frösundavik Office Building The SAS Frösundavik Office BuildingZimmermann, Mark and Johnny Andersson (editors). Low Energy Cooling Case Study Buildings'. International Energy Agency Energy in Buildings and Communities Programme, 1 December 1998. p. 4/159. Retrieved on Augu ...

in Solna Municipality, Sweden. It is the owner of the airlines Scandinavian Airlines and

Scandinavian Airlines Ireland Scandinavian Airlines Connect Ltd, also known as SAS Connect, and previously known as ''SAS Ireland'' or ''SAIL'', is an Irish subsidiary of Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), and by extension SAS Group. The airline exclusively operates flights on b ...

. SAS once owned 19.9% of the now defunct Spanish airline

Spanair Spanair S.A. was a Spanish airline, with its head office in the Spanair Building in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, near Barcelona. Until 2009, it was a subsidiary of the SAS Group; the same parent company in control of Scandinavian Airlines and held ...

as well as shares in Estonian Air and

Skyways Express Skyways Express AB was a Swedish airline that operated regional and domestic scheduled services. With its corporate head office on the property of Stockholm-Arlanda Airport in Sigtuna Municipality, Sweden, its main hub was at Stockholm-Arlanda Air ...

. SAS Group is partially owned by the governments of Sweden and Denmark with a 14.82% and 14.24% holding, respectively. The remaining 70.92% is held by private shareholders, of which

Foundation Asset Management Foundation Asset Management AB is a Swedish foundation asset management company, founded by the three largest Wallenberg foundations in order to manage the assets of the foundations, by means of direct ownership as well as through management and c ...

owns 6.50%. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange, the Stockholm Stock Exchange, and the Copenhagen Stock Exchange. The conglomerate was founded in 1951 as a merger between the three Scandinavian flag carriers Aerotransport (ABA—Sweden), Det Danske Luftfartselskab (DDL—Denmark), and Det Norske Luftfartselskap (DNL—Norway), after the three had been cooperating on international routes since 1946. Until 2001, the three national companies owned a fixed share of the SAS Group, after which the shares of the three companies were merged. The SAS Group previously owned the Rezidor Hotel Group (owner of the Radisson SAS brand) and Braathens and had a minority interest in bmi,

airBaltic airBaltic, legally incorporated as AS Air Baltic Corporation, is the flag carrier of Latvia, with its head office on the grounds of Riga International Airport in Mārupe municipality near Riga. Its main hub is Riga, and it operates bases ...

, Texas Air,

Thai Airways International Thai Airways International Public Company Limited, trading as THAI (, th, บริษัท การบินไทย จำกัด (มหาชน)) is the flag carrier airline of Thailand. Formed in 1961, the airline has its corporate h ...

, and LAN Airlines. SAS was a founder of the Amadeus Computerised Reservation System and the Star Alliance, where several of the group's airlines are members. SAS runs the frequent flyer program

EuroBonus EuroBonus is the frequent flyer program of Scandinavian Airlines and Widerøe. It was launched by SAS in 1992. Airline partners SAS Group * Scandinavian Airlines Star Alliance partner airlines * Aegean Airlines * Air Canada * Air China * Air I ...

History

The airline was founded on 1 August 1946 when Det Danske Luftfartselskab A/S,

AB Aerotransport AB Aerotransport (ABA) was a Swedish government-owned airline which operated during the first half of the 20th century and was merged into what would become the SAS Group. ABA was established on 27 March 1924 under the name Aktiebolaget Aerotr ...

, and Det Norske Luftfartselskap AS (the flag carriers of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway) formed a

partnership A partnership is an arrangement where parties, known as business partners, agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments ...

to handle intercontinental traffic to

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and S ...

. Operations started on 17 September 1946. The companies then started coordination of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an operations in 1948 and finally merged to form the current SAS Consortium in 1951. When established the airline was divided between SAS Danmark (28.6%), SAS Norge (28.6%), and SAS Sweden (42.8%), all owned 50% by private investors and 50% by their respective governments. SAS gradually acquired control of the domestic markets in all three countries by acquiring full or partial control of several local airlines. In May 1997 SAS formed the global Star Alliance network with Air Canada,

Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), commonly shortened to Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. When combined with its subsidiaries, it is the second- largest airline in Europe in terms of passengers carried. Lufthansa is one of the five founding ...

, and

United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois.

. ;SAS Group Milestones *1918. AB Aerotransport (ABA), SAS’ Swedish parent company, is founded *1920 Det Danske Luftfartselskab A/S (DDL), SAS' Danish parent company, is founded *1924 DDL is listed on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange *1927 Det Norske Luftfartselskap A/S (DNL), SAS' Norwegian parent company, is founded *1946 SAS is formed from Det Danske Luftfartselskab A/S (DDL), Det Norske Luftfartselskap A/S (DNL), and Svensk Interkontinental Lufttrafik AB (SILA). The first intercontinental flight is from

Stockholm Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropo ...

to New York. *1951 DDL, DNL, and ABA form the present SAS Consortium. *1954 SAS is the world's first airline to fly the

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan a ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

polar route in regular scheduled service. *1955 SILA (which owns 50% of ABA) is quoted on the "Stockbrokers' List" in Sweden. *1957 SAS is the first airline to offer "round the world service over the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distinguish from the Ma ...

" from

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

via Anchorage. *1959 SAS enters the jet age. The first jet aircraft, the Caravelle, is introduced in service. *1960 SAS opens its first hotel, the SAS Royal Hotel Copenhagen. SAS helps set up

, taking a 30% share in the joint venture. *1965 SAS is the first airline to introduce an electronic reservation system. *1967 DNL is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. *1971 SAS puts its first Boeing 747 jumbo jet into service. *1977 SAS sells its remaining stakes in Thai Airways. *1980 SAS opens its first hotel outside of

, the SAS

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Ku ...

Hotel. SILA is listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. *1981 SAS EuroClass is introduced on all

an routes. *1982 SAS is named the most punctual

airline An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in wh ...

for the first time. *1984 SAS receives the Air Transport World's distinction "Airline of the Year" for 1983. *1986

is founded. *1987 SAS cofounds the Amadeus Computerised Reservation System (also known as GDS). *1989 SAS International Hotels owns 40% of Intercontinental Hotels Group. This stake is sold in 1992. *1994 SAS begins to refocus on airline operations in the SAS Group - selling a number of subsidiaries, along with the franchise of

Diners Club A diner is a small, inexpensive restaurant found across the United States, as well as in Canada and parts of Western Europe. Diners offer a wide range of foods, mostly American cuisine, a casual atmosphere, and, characteristically, a com ...

Nordic. *1996 SAS celebrates its 50th anniversary on August 1. SAS parent company changes its name to SAS Danmark A/S, SAS Norge ASA, and SAS Sverige AB. *1997 SAS is one of the founding members of Star Alliance. *1998 Air Botnia (

Blue1 Blue1 Oy was a Finnish airline owned by CityJet. It was a subsidiary of the SAS Group and flew to around 28 destinations in Europe, mainly from its base at Helsinki Airport. It carried over 1.7 million passengers in 2011.

) becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of the SAS Group. *1999 The SAS Group becomes a majority owner of Widerøe. *2001 A single SAS share is established. On July 6, SAS is listed on the stock exchanges in Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Oslo. Braathens is acquired by the SAS Group in December. *2002 Rezidor SAS Hospitality signs a master franchise agreement with Carlson Hotels Worldwide; the agreement comes to an end in 2009. *2003 SAS acquires 49% of the shares in Estonian Air. *2004 Scandinavian Airlines Sverige, SAS Braathens, and Scandinavian Airlines Danmark are incorporated. *2006 SAS sells its remaining shares in the Rezidor Hotel Group chain. *2007 CEO and President Mats Jansson is inaugurated; SAS sells the SAS Flight Academy. *2010 CEO Jansson departs his position and is replaced by John S. Dueholm on an interim basis. *2011 Rickard Gustafson becomes the new permanent CEO. *2012 In January Spanair collapses and lead to write-downs of 1.7bn kronor by SAS. *2013 SAS sells 80% of the shares in Widerøe. *2014 SAS sells the cleaning part of SAS Ground Handling to Sodexo. *2015 SAS sells SAS Ground Handling in 14 Airports in Norway to Widerøe Ground Handling. SAS sells Blue1 to CityJet. In November Estonian Air collapses and SAS loses 2.5% of the shares. *2016 SAS sells its remaining 20% stake in Widerøe. *2020 SAS halts most of its traffic from the 16th of March due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

Operations

SAS Group is the main operational company in the SAS consortium. As of January 2017 the SAS Group company structure looks as follows: ;Core SAS Holdings * Scandinavian Airlines *

* SAS Cargo Group (100%) *

SAS Ground Handling SAS Ground Handling is Europe's third-largest full-service provider of aircraft ground handling and airport related services. SAS Ground Handling is the largest ground-handling company in Scandinavia. History As of July 1, 2010 SAS Ground Servic ...

(100%) * SAS Technical Services (100%) ;SAS Individual Holdings * Air Greenland (37.5%)

Head office

The SAS Group head office is currently in the

in , Solna Municipality, Sweden, in the Stockholm area. The SAS Group head office was previously located on the grounds of the Stockholm Arlanda Airport (ARN) in

Sigtuna Municipality Sigtuna Municipality (''Sigtuna kommun'') is a municipality in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. Its seat is located in the town of Märsta, approximately north of the Swedish capital, Stockholm. The municipality is a part of Metropo ...

, Sweden. Before spring 2011, it was located in the SAS Frösundavik Office Building.

Partners and alliances

* Air Greenland has an

interline agreement Interlining, also known as interline ticketing and interline booking, is a voluntary commercial agreement between individual airlines to handle passengers traveling on itineraries that require multiple flights on multiple airlines. Such agreement ...

with SAS * Scandinavian Airlines is member of the Star Alliance. * SAS Cargo Group is a member of the WOW Alliance

List of major shareholders

Presidents

*1946–1948:

Per Norlin Per Adolf Norlin (23 January 1905 – 11 January 1992) was a Swedish businessman. He was CEO of Swedish Intercontinental Airlines (SILA), Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) and AB Aerotransport (ABA). Career Norlin was born in Stockholm, Sweden, the s ...

*1949–1951: Per Møystad Backe *1951–1954:

*1955–1957:

Henning Throne-Holst Henning Throne-Holst (25 July 1895 – 23 March 1980) was a Norwegian born, Swedish industrialist. Biography Throne-Holst was born at Strinda in Sør-Trøndelag, Norway. He was the son of Johan Throne Holst (1868-1946) and Hanna Richter Je ...

*1958–1961:

Åke Rusck John Åke J:son Rusck (9 August 1912 – 24 September 1978) was a Swedish businessman. He was CEO of Sweden's major state hydro power company Vattenfall between 1948 and 1957 and then CEO of the SAS Group SAS AB (Scandinavian Airlines Syst ...

*1961–1962: Curt Nicolin *1962–1969:

Karl Nilsson Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer * Karl of Austria, last Austri ...

*1969–1978:

Knut Hagrup Knut Hagrup (né Hagerup-Svendsen; 13 November 1913 – 15 May 2003) was a Norwegian aviator. He was born in Bergen to Henry Lie-Svendsen and Ebba Hagerup . He served with the exiled Norwegian Armed Forces and the Royal Norwegian Air Force in ...

*1978–1981: Carl-Olov Munkberg *1981–1993:

Jan Carlzon Jan Gösta Carlzon, né ''Karlsson'' (born 25 June 1941) is a Swedish businessman. He is most noted for being chief executive officer of SAS Group from 1981 to 1994.Jan Carlzon interview with Bob Thompson, ''CustomerThink.com'', March 7, 200/ref> ...

*1993–1994: Jan Reinås *1994–2001:

Jan Stenberg Jan Stenberg (1939–2015) was a Sweden, Swedish businessperson and Chair (official), chairman of the board of Stepstone, Cygate Måldata, Service Factory, Marratech, Spring Mobil, Q-matic and Tific. Stenberg was educated with a law degree from ...

*2001–2006: Jørgen Lindegaard *2007–2010:

Mats Jansson Mats Jansson (born 1951, in Kolsva, Sweden) is a Swedish businessperson. He was Chief Executive Officer of SAS Group from 2007 to 2010.

*2010–2011: John S Dueholm *2011–2021: Rickard Gustafson *2021: Anko van der Werff

Financial performance

*Prior to 2001, the SAS Group traffic figures did not include airBaltic, Blue1, and Spanair.

Fleet

The SAS Group fleet consists of the following aircraft as of August, 2019: On January 4, 2010 the SAS Group announced the sales of 18 surplus MD-80 series aircraft to Allegiant Travel Company. The aircraft, built from 1985 to 1991, were delivered during the first half of 2010. On August 26, 2010 the SAS Group announced a 5-year lease agreement of 8 MD-90 series aircraft to an undisclosed US airline. The aircraft will be delivered between Q3-2010 and Q2-2011. On April 10, 2018 the SAS Group announced a deal with

Airbus Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft throughout the world. The company has three divisions: '' ...

for 35 new Airbus A320neos with another 15 being leased. These aircraft are meant to replace some of SAS's current A320s, as well as their Bombardier CRJ900's. Bringing the total of the type to 80 aircraft. It is expected that SAS will announce the replacement aircraft for the 737-700/600 variant in 2020 or 2021. The A220 is discussed to be the favorable option.

Destinations

SAS Museum

The exhibits at the SAS Museum at Oslo Airport, Gardermoen, in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...

, represent an important part of Scandinavian civil aviation history. The museum collections cover Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) as well as its parent companies: AB Aerotransport (ABA), Det Danske Luftfartselskab (DDL), and Det Norske Luftfartselskap (DNL). A museum was originally established in 1989 in the hangar area at

Oslo Airport, Fornebu Oslo Airport, Fornebu ( no, Oslo lufthavn, Fornebu), was the primary international airport serving Oslo and Eastern Norway from 1 June 1939 to 7 October 1998. It was then replaced by Oslo Airport, Gardermoen, and the area has since been redeve ...

at the same time as the formation of the DNL/SAS Historic Society. It was built up through the efforts of a group of enthusiasts among retired and active SAS employees. The establishment of the new museum in 2003-2004 is a result of SAS feeling a responsibility to document the history of Scandinavian civil aviation. For this purpose, the airline has entered a partnership with its three national historic societies and the latter undertake the day-to-day work on a volunteer basis. SAS absorbs the rental cost of the museum building and has also provided depots for museum exhibits in Denmark and Sweden. The museum at Oslo's Gardermoen is therefore more than just a continuation of the facility at Fornebu – it is a completely new and considerably expanded Scandinavian museum. It is run by a board that includes representatives of the SAS consortium and the Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian historic societies.

References

External links

SAS Group
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sas Group Holding companies of Sweden Airline holding companies Airlines of Sweden Companies based in Solna Municipality Holding companies established in 1951 Companies related to the Wallenberg family Sigtuna Municipality Holding companies of Denmark Holding companies of Norway Companies listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange Companies listed on Nasdaq Stockholm Swedish companies established in 1951 Airlines established in 1951