SAS Scandinavian Airlines Returns to New York JFK

DALLAS — SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK) announced the return of its flights from Copenhagen (CPH) to New York (JFK) after 34 years. The scheduled service will return on February 9, 2023.

The Danish flag carrier is the leader in transatlantic flights from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. Customers can already connect between Europe and the United States via the airline's hub in Copenhagen to Newark (EWR), but now they can also connect to New York's largest and busiest airport, with five weekly flights that will increase to daily during the summer schedule.

During the announcement, SK Network and Revenue Manager, Erik Westman, stated, "SAS offers a solid product to Newark Airport from Scandinavia, and we believe that this addition to JFK from Copenhagen will strengthen the New York offer to our customers. The US is a strategic market for SAS, and we will continue to develop new routes and destinations whenever the right opportunity presents itself.”

As New York-JFK is a hub for both SkyTeam and Oneworld, but not for Star Alliance, the SK flights will be dispatched from Terminal 7, which has been recently left open by American Airlines (AA) in favor of Terminal 8.

A Clear Alliance Division In New York

The airports of New York show an interesting phenomenon that is not always seen in aviation. While LaGuardia (LGA) remains the main domestic airport in the city, the two giants, Newark and JFK stated a clear division between operating airlines from SkyTeam, Oneworld, and Star Alliance.

Functioning as the main hub for American Airlines and Delta for connecting traffic from the US onward to Europe, JFK welcomes mostly flights from airlines that are members of Oneworld and SkyTeam, such as Iberia and British Airways, or Air France and KLM, respectively.

On the other hand, New York's not-so-secondary airport, Newark Liberty, is the home for the giant United Airlines, which is one of the largest members of Star Alliance. Because of that, most Star Alliance carriers such as TAP Air Portugal, Lufthansa, or SAS tend to prefer operating their flights to EWR to benefit from connections on behalf of United, as we talked about in our Worldwide Airline Cooperation premium story.

It is rare to see external airlines flying to the opposite airport to their alliance, but when demand is so high to support the double amount of services to New York, some carriers decide to switch to the other airport instead of adding additional frequencies in order to look for different market shares.

This is the case with the recent Air France (AF) route announced from Paris to Newark, similar to SK operating flights to both JFK and EWR.

Featured image: Scandinavian Airlines Airbus A350-900: Mateo Skinner/Airways