Chief commercial officer Paul Verhagen sees new widebodies providing a step change to global long-haul network.
Scandinavian carrier SAS aims to extend its global reach after its deal earlier this year to bolster its widebody fleet with up to 40 Airbus aircraft.
The airline signed a deal at the end of June to purchase 18 Rolls-Royce Trent 7000-powered A330neos, as part of wider plans to add 40 Airbus widebodies, including A330-300s that the carrier has secured ahead of the arrival of the new aircraft.
Speaking during the World Aviation Festival in Lisbon on 14 October, SAS chief commercial officer Paul Verhagen noted the addition of widebodies was “long overdue” given that it only operates 15 long-haul aircraft – including a dozen A330/A350 widebodies – out of a fleet around 145 aircraft.
“So we are very under-indexed on long-haul [aircraft],” he says.
“What we do want versus what we are today, is to have more spread and depth in our network,” he explains. “Today we are very US-heavy, we have zero footprint in Latin America, very limited footprint in Asia. We want to spread that.
“We see lots of opportunities but the thing is we don’t have the fleet to exploit those opportunities, because we have only 12 widebody aircraft and there is only so much we can do,” Verhagen says.
He cites Asia as an example. “We would love to fly more to Asia,” he says, citing the strong demand from Europe to Asia bypassing the Middle East given the geopolitical challenges in the region. “We will be increasing Haneda and [Seoul] Incheon, but that’s all we can do. Europe-Asia flying takes up a lot of aircraft.”
SAS also plans to use the additional long-haul capacity to build in its existing markets.
“We want to have more depth in our network, so increasing frequencies where we already fly,” he says.
Notably it sees growth in the US market, where it ultimately aims to capitalise on being part of Air France-KLM’s transatlantic joint venture with Virgin Atlantic and Delta Air Lines.
While a Star Alliance member, SAS was never part of the Lufthansa, United Airlines and Air Canada transatlantic joint venture. But both SAS and minority shareholder Air France-KLM have indicated the intention for the Scandinavian airline to join the SkyTeam carrier’s alliance across the North Atlantic. Timing, however, is tied to Air France-KLM’s move to take majority ownership of SAS.
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