The early history

The first initiative to a merger between the national carriers of Denmark (DDL, Det Danske Luftfartselskab A/S), Norway (DNL, Det Norske Luftfartselskap A/S) and (ABA, AB Aerotransport) was already aired in January 1940. At that time also Finland with Aero Oy was part of the talks, but because of the war between Finland and Sovjet Union that started November 30th 1939, the Swedish ABA was supposed to look after the Finnish interest.The purpose for these talks was to establish a Nordic air route to USA over the Atlantic. The WWII put these talks on hold.

Doulas DC-4

During WWII a privately owned Swedish airline (SILA, Svensk Interkontinental Lufttrafik AB) was set up to start flights from Sweden to US over Scotland, but their order of 10 DC-4s couldn't be delivered until the war had ended. As an intermediate solution, SILA leased and thereafter bought seven B-17s (aircraft that made emergency landings in Sweden) and used them for courier service to Scotland. This lead to SILA making the first post-war civilian flight between Europe and the U.S. on June 27th 1945.

Now with the war ended, SILA, DDL and DNL formed the consortium SAS for joint transatlantic operation in 1946. In 1948 the two Swedish airlines ABA and SILA merged to a single entity ABA. The same year European SAS (ESAS) was formed with DDL having 2/7of the shares, DNL 2/7 and ABA 3/7. This was also the same year as the first DC-6 arrived in addition to many surplus DC-3 were picked up.

In 1949 the SAS Consortium comprising the total traffic of the three companies was established. The shares of the newly formed consortium remained the same as at ESAS. Ownership of each of the three companies was distributed 50/50 among government and private interests. In February 1951 ABA, DDL and DNL ceased to exist as independently operating airlines. The same year the SAAB 90 Scandia came into the fleet.

Convair CV-440 "Metropolitan"

Next aircraft to be introduced into the fleet was the Convair CV-440 "Metropolitan" which came in 1956. The Metropolitan was used in the European network and within Scandinavia.

First over the Pole and Around the World

With the DC-7C SAS got a true long distance aircraft. The first DC-7C ("Torstein Viking" LN-MOB MSN 44927) was delivered to SAS on August 4th 1956. With these aircraft a new era was started. On February 24th 1957 a new service from Copenhagen to Tokyo over the North Pole with one stop at Anchorage, and this reduced the flying time from 52 hours to 32 hours. Since the southern route to Tokyo still was flown, in addition to the polar route - the DC-7C earned the right to put "FIRST OVER THE POLE AND AROUND THE WORLD" over the door. Later these polar navigation skills were used to help Aerolineas Argentinas opening their South Pole route to Australia.

The jet age

The jet age started at SAS in 1959, after having ordered the first six SE-210 Caravelle i 1957. "Finn Viking" SE-KLH arrived on April 4th 1959. The last Caravelle were retired from service in 1974.

Next out was the long distance fleet, and since SAS is a "Douglas customer", they selected the DC-8 over the Boeing 707. The first DC-8-33 ("Dan Viking" OY-KTA) arrived on March 31st 1960. The DC-8 replaced the DC-7C on the New York route shortly thereafter. Later SAS picked up both the DC-8-55, the DC-8-62 and the DC-8-63, and some of them stayed in the fleet until 1987. The total number of DC-8s in the fleet during these 27 years were 29; 7x -33, 4x -55, 10x -62 and 8x -63. During the early 60s two Convair CV-990 "Coronado"s were leased in from Swissair to operate medium/long distance routes.

 McDonnell Douglas DC-9-41

In the mid 60s SAS started to look for a replacement for the Caravelle, and Douglas came up with the lengthened DC-9-30, the DC-9-41 - 1.93m longer than the DC-30 and JT8D-11 engines. Ten of these were ordered plus options for 14 more on January 25th 1966. Already with the DC-8s a strong technical relationship with Swissair was started and this was continued with the DC-9s. Swisssair have ordered DC-9-32 and five of these were leased of SAS between autumn 1967 and summer 1968 to kick start the DC-9 operations. The first DC-9-41 was delivered to on February 29th 1968. A total of 49 DC-9-41 have been in SAS operation and the last were retired from the fleet in January 2002.

To replace the aging Metropolitan SAS of course found a solution together with Douglas - the DC-9-21 was born. The DC-9-21 was a DC-9-10 with the wings from the DC-9-30, the engines from DC-9-41 and aft stair. The result was the "sports car" of the sky, and that's why it got the nick name among the pilots "DC-9 Sport". The reason for having this powerful aircraft was the short strips it had to serve throughout Scandinavia. A total of ten of these aircraft were ever built, and all served at SAS.

In December 1967 ordered two Boeing 747-283B and those two arrived in 1971.The Jumbo was actually to large for SAS, but those two were ordered for pure competitive reasons. The aircraft was used on the Trans-Siberian route from Copenhagen to Tokyo via Moscow - flying time: 13 hours. A total of six 747-283Bs, some of them were combi, served at SAS. In addition to this, five other 747s have served at SAS, leased in for short periods.

In 1970 KLM, Swissair, Scandinavian Airlines and UTA agreed to cooperate to keep down the costs for training, maintenance and equipment. This KSSU agreement lead to the four carriers placing a combined order for 36 aircraft, for the DC-10-30. The first, "Olav Viking" LN-RKA, of the twelve that served at SAS arrived on October 1st 1974. The DC-10s were gradually replacing the DC-8s, but it took some time to replace the DC-8s - to be exact 14 years after the first DC-10 arrived.

Only 15 days into the 1980s a new aircraft type arrived at SAS - the Airbus A300B2-320 "Snorre Viking" LN-RCA. This aircraft type didn't exactly fit the needs of SAS, so after two years in their service three of them were leased out to Scanair and the fourth stayed in for another year and served the Middle East. In 1987 the last three A300 were sold out.

New paint scheme, Janne Carlsson and businessmen

In August 1981 Janne Carlsson was appointed president of SAS and with him SAS were relit. The same year new service concepts were introduced, like the EuroClass - business-class service at normal economy fares on European routes. The staff of SAS was now allowed to smile - actually to meet the passenger with a smile became a part of their new business concept. In 1982 EuroClass was introduced on intercontinental routes, and gone was the era of First Class. Results of this shake up started to show - in 1982 SAS was the most punctual airline in Europe and for the year 1983 SAS was awarded the title "Airline of the Year" by Air Transport World.

One part of creating this businessmen airline, was to change the visual identity. In the summer of 1982 some of these proposed paint schemes were tested out (Special Paint Schemes), and in 1983 it was unveiled.

  McDonnell Douglas MD-87

But new paint wasn't enough - the fleet had to be upgraded too. As the strong McDonnell Douglas customer SAS was, it was obvious that the next plane to be added to fleet was the MD-80. The first MD-81 "Hake Viking" OY-KGT arrived on October 10th 1985 (this aircraft was also the last aircraft to take off from the old Oslo Airport, Fornebu as SK333 on October 7th 1998). Up until today a total of 77 MD-80s have served at SAS - 9 of these were early editions (non-EFIS DC-9-81s) leased in from Swissair to bridge the gap in demand between 1995 and 2001. Also DC-9-51s were leased in both from Swissair (three) and JAT (two) in the late 80s for the same purpose.

For the long distance operations Boeing 767s were ordered in 1988 - two B767-283ERs and seven B767-383ERs. This was actually the first time SAS ever have ordered Boeing aircraft. The first B767-383ER "Ingengerd Viking" SE-DKO was delivered March 29th 1989, the first B767-283ER "Freydis Viking" LN-RCC was delivered on May 11th 1990 and a total of 18 different B767s been in the fleet. For a long time the MD-11 was in the favorite for this order, but because of the occurring design problems at MDC, Boeing won the contract. This was a big blow for MDC. To sweeten the blow for MDC - 61 additional MD-80s were ordered. Some of these orders were switched to MD-90-30s, of which the first arrived October 16th 1996 - "Heidrek Viking" SE-DMF.

One year before the MD-80s came into the fleet, in 1984, SAS started its commuter operations with nine Fokker F.27 Friendships. In 1985 SAS Commuter orders the Fokker F.50 to replace the old F.27s. These SAS Commuter operation were given the name of Eurolink, Norlink and Swelink dependent on which market they served. For Swelink the Saab 2000 was the aircraft used, and these were in the fleet between 1997 and 2001.

During this period at lot of activity were thrown into cooperation with other airlines, and these were

Successes:

• SAS Leisure forms Spanair with Spanish partners August 8th 1987.
• SAS buys shares from Airlines of Britain Holdings, and forms alliance with British Midland December 15th 1988.
• A cooperation with All Nippon Airways begins March 3rd 1989.
  SAS buys 51% of the shares in Linjeflyg on February 11th 1992. Linjeflyg is integrated into SAS on January 1st 1993. With this integration both Fokker F.28 Fellowship and Boeing 737-500s were brought into the fleet. The last Fokker F.28 leaves the fleet on October 31st 1999
• In August 1995 SAS becomes a share holder in a new Latvian airline, Air Baltic.
• SAS and United Airlines signed a cooperation agreement during the fall of 1995, and code-share operation started on April 10th 1996.
• The SAS and Lufthansa alliance is implemented on February 1st 1996.
• On May 14th 1997, SAS and Air Canada, Lufthansa, Thai Airways International and United Airlines announce the formation of Star Alliance.
• On October 1st 1997 SAS starts to buy their first share in the Norwegian commuter airline Widerøe’s Flyveselskap.
• January 20th 1998 SAS announces that they bought the Finnish airline Air Botnia.

Short lived experiences:

• Continental were chosen as the partner in USA, and New York City operation were moved from JFK to EWR on May 1st 1989. The partnership with Continental ended with the formation of Star Alliance, but EWR is still the major US east coast airport for SAS with three aircraft arrivals from Scandinavia daily - a fourth will be added on March 30th 2003 with OSL-EWR coming on line again after having been stopped since 9/11.
• Alliance agreed with LanChile, which also include SAS taking over 35% of the shares, on January 8th 1990. In early 1994 the LanChile shares were sold out, and the alliance were ended.
• SAS Leisure (Scanair) and Denmark’s Spies Travel Group (Conair) merge their charter carriers and form Premiair from January 1st 1994. The Premiar shares were sold to Airtours plc only few months later.

Failure:

• Together with Swissair and Austrian Airlines, SAS formed the European Quality Alliance on September 28th 1989 and for a short period even Finnair was inside in the warmth. European Quality Alliance together KLM tried in the early 1990s to establish an even closer cooperation aimed to a large extent at a merged organization. This project was called Alcazar, and project collapsed in late september 1993 because the airlines involved had too strong ties elsewhere. This collapse lead to the fall of Janne Carlsson, and an end of an era at SAS. As an interim solution Jan Reinås was appointed to president SAS, Jan Stenberg took over on April 1st 1994.

The new millennium

The new millennium started at SAS in the mid 90s. After the Alcazar collapse, SAS started to rise as the bird Phoenix with the forming of the Star Alliance. To rekindle the spirit of yesteryears, a new look was found and off course new aircraft had be brought in. After a hard fought fight between the aircraft manufacturers, SAS announced in 1995 that it had placed its largest order of aircraft ever by Boeing - 41 Boeing 737-600 and options for another 35 with delivery to begin in 1998. The 737s are supposed to replace all the DC-9s and the oldest MD80s. The price tag from Boeing for these aircraft must have been very sweet, but the result for MDC was fatal.

For the commuter service also new aircraft was ordered during the late summer of 1997. The order of 15 aircraft plus 18 more on option went to Bombardier for their Dash-8-Q400.

McDonnell Douglas MD-90-30

August 6th 1998 the new trademark strategy, a new logotype and class designations for Business Class and Economy Class were revealed, and on August 17th the first Boeing 737-683 was presented in Seattle in their new colours. First delivered B737-683 was "Bernt Viking" SE-DNM on September 15th.September 24th SAS’s program of renewal and a new corporate identity is presented, named SAS 2000+. A total of 30 B737-683s, nick named "the piglet", have been delivered along with six -783s and 19 -883s. Four -883s are still to be delivered. May 7th 1999 "The New SAS" were presented worldwide with a new corporate image, redecorated aircraft (both inside and out) and new uniforms.

Six days earlier was the last flight of the B747 for SAS Cargo, instead SAS from now on buys MD-11 freight capacity through a wet-lease deal with Lufthansa Cargo.

SAS decided on December 15th 1999 to buy a total of 10 Airbus A330-343X and A340-313X long-haul aircraft, with options on an additional seven aircraft to replace all the Boeing 767-383ERs. Furthermore on February 17th 2000 SAS announced that they have ordered twelve Airbus A321-232, with ten more on options. One of the main reasons for choosing the A321 was the larger cargo volume compared to the B737s. And with over one year experience with 737NGs, it seems SAS weren't so impressed with the quality of their "piglets".

The Dash-8-Q400 started to come into the fleet with the first delivery on January 18th 2000. The arrival of these aircraft were many months late, and when they started to arrive they were a real pain with many technical errors. Even today there are problems with the aircraft type. Is it the worst aircraft buy ever for SAS?

Jørgen Lindegaard succeeded Jan Stenberg as president and CEO of SAS on May 8th 2001.

Contrary to the Dash-8, the Airbuses that have been delivered are on schedule and no comments about poor quality have appeared. First A340-313X was delivered on July 20th 2001 and with this aircraft type a third cabin class is introduced - the Economy Extra Class. First scheduled flight between Copenhagen (CPH) and New York City (EWR) is on August 31st 2001, just eleven days before the two aircraft crashed into the Twin Tower.

In the wake of terrorist attacks in USA, SAS announced on October 1st 12% capacity cuts, staff reductions and grounding of 16 of its 200 aircraft.

Then disaster struck SAS - their worst accident ever - SK686 "Lage Viking" SE-DMA MD-87 collided with a Cessna Citation Jet during take off on the foggy morning of October 8th 2001 at Linate Airport (LIN). All 110 on board the MD-87 died together with the all four on board the CJ and four airport ground workers perished in the flames too. The exact cause for the accident is not totally reveiled, but the SAS MD-87 was cleared for takeoff. More about the accident can be read here. "Scandinavian Association for SK686, 8th of October 2001" have their own web page, and if you want to honor the memory of the victims or just get the latest news - use this link. In March 2003 11 Italian officials - 7 air traffic controllers/administrators from ENAV, 2 senior level managers at ENAC and 2 senior level managers at the airport administration SEA at Linate - are sued for criminal negligence and causing this accident. Trials will start soon.

Just over one month after the accident, on November 12th, the first Airbus A321-232 "Arne Viking" OY-KBK was delivered.

Later the same month SAS announced the final agreement to acquire Norwegian airline Braathens, after the acquisition was approved by the Norwegian Competition Authority.

First service for A321 came on December 10th as SK450 between Copenhagen (CPH) and Oslo (OSL). The A321 have since been used on routes between the three Scandinavian capitol cities, and on other high demand destinations in Europe.

2002 started with the farewell to the DC-9s and the last scheduled service as SK1606 from Zurich (ZRH) to Stockholm (ARN). The aircraft flown was "Gardar Viking" SE-DAS and landed at ARN 22:04 and on block 22:12 - end of an era and 34 years of history.

The first delivery of the latest arriving aircraft type to the fleet, the Airbus A330-343X "Emund Viking" LN-RKH came on October 1st 2002. The A330s are used on the flight to the east coast of USA and the A340s are used on the other long haul routes.

The future

What about the future of Scandinavian Airlines? These days a major shake up is started. Money have to be saved. They are talking about cuts, large cuts. They are also talking about expanding in other areas, like the low price tourist traffic. March 20th SAS revealed their new service under the marketing name "Snowflake".

To be continued.

Special paint schemes
Scandinavian Airlines have had some special paint schemes over the years. I've tried to collect the ones they've had for the last 25 years. If you click on the Star Alliance Boeing 767-383ER under, you will come to the Special Paint Schemes page.

Boeing 767-383ER

Other links to SAS-related web sites
SAS Cargo
SAS Flight Academy
SAS Flight Dispatch
SAS Flight Operations
SAS Media

Today's aircraft types

Airbus A340-313X

Photo: SAS

Airbus 330-343X

Photo: Kurt Gorm Larsen

Airbus 321-232

Photo: Kurt Gorm Larsen

Airbus 319-132

Photo: Jan Kertzscher

Boeing 737-883

Photo: Kurt Gorm Larsen

Boeing 737-783

Photo: Kurt Gorm Larsen

Boeing 737-683

Photo: SAS

Bombardier Dash-8-Q400

Photo: SAS

Fokker 50

Photo: Nils Mosberg

McDonnell Douglas MD-87

Photo: Kurt Gorm Larsen

McDonnell Douglas MD-81/82

Photo: Kurt Gorm Larsen

The latest 737-783 LN-RRB Cecilia Viking at Rygge Airshow 2007

Co-pilot giving us a wave on arrival

SAS aircraft at Pier F Stockholm-Arlanda Airport

The AVRO RJ70 is ready to let passengers on board - bound for London City Airport

Captain waiting on the pin wave from the ground personnel after having been pushed back