DALLAS - With the start of the summer 2023 season around the corner, European airlines are announcing changes to their networks to adapt to the increase in demand for flights to leisure destinations in the continent. 

SAS - Scandinavian Airlines (SK) has announced the addition of ten new routes and more frequencies to the system, mainly to popular destinations in the Mediterranean.

According to the airline's official press release, the new routes and frequencies are as follows:

· Stockholm-Florence – new twice-weekly service on Fridays and Sundays from mid-August.

· Stockholm-Larnaca – new weekly service on Saturdays from mid-August.

· Oslo-Tenerife – new weekly service on Tuesdays from late June to mid-August.

· Oslo-Hamburg – up to twice-weekly service resumed from Easter.

· Oslo-Berlin – up to five times-weekly service resumed from Easter.

· Oslo-Prague – new twice-weekly service on Thursday and Sundays from end-September.

· Bergen-Palma de Mallorca – new weekly service on Saturdays from mid-June to mid-August.

· Bergen-Manchester – twice-weekly service resumed on Mondays and Fridays from September.

· Trondheim-Split – new weekly service on Saturdays from end of May to mid-October.

· Oslo-Tallinn – new twice-weekly service on Thursday and Sundays from mid-August.

Increased frequencies on multiple routes, such as:

· Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm to Barcelona, Malaga, and Palma de Mallorca.

· Stockholm to Beirut (subject to regulatory approval).

· Copenhagen to Catania and Palermo.

· Oslo to Alicante and Las Palmas.

· Bergen and Stavanger to Alicante.

· Bergen and Stavanger to Split.

Increased Frequencies

Additionally, other routes will experience an increase in flight frequencies, such as Bergen (BGO) and Stavanger (SVG) to Alicante (ALC) and Split (SPU), and also routes to Barcelona (BCN), Malaga (AGP), and Palma de Mallorca (PMI) from all the three primary hubs of SK.

Erik Westman, EVP of Network and Revenue Management of SK, stated, "We are delighted to welcome our passengers back and see the desire to travel continuing to rise. SAS is increasing capacity this summer, adding more routes and additional flights to popular destinations. We are also glad to return to beautiful Tokyo with three weekly flights in June and to launch our new routes to Newark."

Indeed, SAS will also expand intercontinental, with new long-haul routes such as Copenhagen (CPH) to Shanghai (PVG) and Tokyo (HND). The airline will also grow its presence in the United States thanks to the opening of "long and skinny" flights from Gothenburg (GOT) and Aalborg (AAL) to New York (EWR) with their new Airbus A321neoLR (Long Range) aircraft.

Full Focus On Summer European Travel

SAS is facing serious issues on its long-haul network due to Russian airspace restrictions. At the time of writing, the nordic carrier still over one-third of its total widebody fleet remains grounded or stored due to the lack of capacity to operate these flights.

It is hoped that the expanded European schedule will be financially beneficial. Inbound tourism to countries such as Spain and Italy sees a significant influx from Nordic countries such as Norway, Sweden, and Finland. So Scandinavian Airlines is expanding its route network to these countries to capture the largest amount of customers during the peak summer season.

This is a great alternative to focus on during the dramatic situation in the transatlantic and Asian markets of SAS.

https://airwaysmag.com/sas-10-new-a320neos-acg/

Featured image: Scandinavian Airlines Airbus A321-253NX (SE-DMS). Photo: Marty Basaria/Airways.