SAS CEO pushes to join Air France, KLM and Delta in transatlantic deal

Ask Scandinavian Airlines CEO Anko van der Werf about the airline’s network strategy, and he’ll answer a riddle.

“Someone is in the North Pole and takes a step to the right, which direction are they going?” he quipped in an exclusive interview with TPG. “Everyone thinks it’s the east, but of course, it’s the south, because when you’re in the true Arctic, well, everything is south.”

The same goes for SAS. The airline’s hubs are at Copenhagen Airport (CPH) in Denmark, Oslo Airport (OSL) in Norway and Stockholm Arlanda Airport (ARN) in Sweden, all to the south.

That’s why SAS is investing in its hub at CPH – its only “global hub”, according to its latest annual report – and expanding ties with its new minority shareholder Air France-KLM and its partners, including Delta Air Lines and Korean Air.

The result was a new Viking force. Since emerging from bankruptcy protection in 2024, SAS has launched a number of product improvements, from the return of business class on short-haul flights to high-speed inflight Wi-Fi on SpaceX 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 Incheon International Airport (ICN) in South Korea, and ordered at least 45 new Embraer E195-E2 jets 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 currently owns nearly a fifth of SAS and plans to increase its stake to 60.5% by the end of 2026.

Fly across the North Atlantic with Air France, KLM and Delta

“I’m passionate about joint ventures,” Vanderwerf said of SAS’s long-term strategy.

This is not surprising. When AeroMexico formed a joint venture with Delta Air Lines in 2016, Van der Werff served as the airline’s chief commercial officer. Prior to that, he held various roles at KLM (an airline involved in a transatlantic joint venture as early as 1993) and Northwest Airlines (acquired and integrated into Delta since the 2000s). This immune collaboration enables airlines to coordinate everything from schedules and fares to sharing revenue and costs, and jointly market flights from partners.

Incorporating SAS into Air France and KLM’s transatlantic deals with Delta and Virgin Atlantic could benefit the airline in everything from expanding its sales to Delta’s large loyalty base in the U.S. to providing more passenger services at its CPH hubs. While joining the joint venture is near the top of Vanderwerf’s to-do list, it’s not something he can do alone.

“I think we really should start as soon as possible,” he said, noting that talks to bring SAS into the joint venture have not yet begun.

“It’s something we all believe in, but, hey, the regulatory approval process, let’s see when that goes forward,” VanderWerff continued.

Van der Werff’s comments come as rivals have begun expanding their joint ventures. Lufthansa Group applied to the U.S. Department of Transportation in September to include Italian airline ITA in its transatlantic agreement with Air Canada and United Airlines.

International Airlines Group, owner of British Airways and Iberia, is considering investing in TAP Air Portugal while accelerating organic growth at its airlines.

Based on public statements, Air France and KLM appear to be focusing first on increasing their stakes in SAS before collaborating commercially.

“This new initiative will allow Air France-KLM and SAS to realize their full synergy potential through full integration across all business areas, including loyalty, and will extend beyond commercial activities,” the group said in July.

Copenhagen: Europe’s next big hub?

One of SAS’s weakest links has long been its three northern hubs, which serve more than 200,000 people spread over an area larger than Texas. The result is three undersized hubs and duplicative long-haul routes at a time when hub size and scale matter.

Since taking the helm of SAS in 2021, Van der Werff has set out to change that.

CPH, the airline’s southernmost hub, has 38% more seats this year than in 2023, when Air France and KLM announced their investment in SAS, according to schedule data from aviation analytics firm Cirium. Seats at SAS’s other two hubs, ARN and OSL, increased by 12% and dropped by 2% respectively.

For intercontinental flights, the shift from SAS to CPH is even more dramatic. The Cirium schedule shows that ex-Europe, CPH saw a 30% increase in seats, while ARN dropped 51% and OSL dropped 2%.

“Norway and Sweden [are] It’s really important and we’re obviously developing our market there, but if you start with widebodies, it makes a lot of sense to bring them together in one central point and really start to compete with cities like Heathrow, Frankfurt, Paris and Amsterdam,” Van der Werff said. “There’s a lot of traffic being sucked out of our network and going south. “

Despite recent capacity changes, SAS’s CPH hub is still much smaller than any of the competing hubs van der Werff mentioned. Cirium schedule data shows the airline plans to fly 7.9 million seats from the Danish capital this year, compared with 24.5 million seats for British Airways from London Heathrow (LHR) and 22.6 million for Air France from Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG).

The larger CPH hub would also suit Air France and KLM. The Dutch government wants to reduce the number of flights allowed at Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS), the group’s second-largest hub, in the name of noise. If AMS sees fewer flights, CPH could become a growth valve for the group.

van der Werff has not revealed any new U.S. routes for 2026; he declined to comment on the topic. On the intercontinental front, SAS announced new services next year to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (BOM) in Mumbai, India, and Ben Gurion Airport (TLV) in Tel Aviv.

SAS ‘under-indexed’ on long-haul aircraft

One of the challenges SAS faced in developing its CPH hub was aircraft availability. The airline ordered up to 55 Embraer E195-E2 jets in July to expand its European network, but only has 15 aircraft with intercontinental capabilities, which Van der Werff said is “underindexed on long-haul aircraft.”

SAS’s long-haul fleet consists of 12 twin-aisle aircraft (eight Airbus A330-300 and four Airbus A350-900) and three Airbus A321LR.

The airline has only two A350 aircraft on order, both due for delivery in 2026. After that, there were no new wide-body aircraft.

“I want to see a [campaign] “We are working with Boeing and Airbus to further develop our wide-body long-range fleet. I don’t think we have reached the limit yet,” Van der Werf said.

Acquiring more twin-aisle aircraft may be difficult. The order backlog for wide-body aircraft from major aircraft manufacturers such as Airbus and Boeing will continue into the 2030s, leaving airlines without existing orders with limited options.

Aengus Kelly, chief executive of AerCap, the world’s largest aircraft leasing company, said on Wednesday that the market for new wide-body aircraft was in short supply and the market was “extremely tough.”

Once SAS becomes a more integrated part of the group, it may be possible to capitalize on orders from Air France and KLM. The latest fleet plans of Air France and KLM show that as of the end of June, Air France and KLM had ordered a total of 53 Airbus A350 aircraft and three Boeing 787 aircraft.

As for the popular long-range single-aisle Airbus A321XLR, Van der Werff said he didn’t think the aircraft did more for SAS than the A321LR.

Keep your EuroBonus or join Flying Blue

One question troubling SAS loyalists (and everyone in the points and miles world) is the future of the airline’s loyalty program, EuroBonus. The scheme has 8.5 million members across Scandinavia and has deep ties with Scandic, the region’s largest hotel operator.

Van der Werff made it clear that there would be no immediate changes to EuroBonus. SAS needs the European Commission to approve the bulk of Air France and KLM’s investment in the airline before it can begin discussions on integration with the group’s Flying Blue loyalty program.

“I’m thinking at some point with a rebrand, the loyalty and loyalty points and all the tier benefits and everything else will stay with us and stay the same, but maybe there’s a rebrand through which you can attract all kinds of other synergies and be part of a better deal as part of the family. I think we should explore that,” he said.

Until then, SAS plans to continue doing what it is doing. This means CPH’s growth, including a 40% increase in seats this winter compared to last year, continues to attract premium travelers and strengthens the ties it has established with Air France, KLM and their partners through improved offerings from food to Wi-Fi.

But one thing doesn’t change at SAS, no matter who owns a controlling stake or which joint venture the airline belongs to.

“We are Scandinavians,” Van der Werf said.

Related reading: