«Dear Colleague,
Our aim to be a sustainable, competitive, and attractive airline for travelers to, from and within Scandinavia continues. The ongoing pandemic has accelerated an already existing need to create profitability in all parts of our organization. Implementing a fully competitive operating model with high flexibility is pivotal for SAS to maintain its position and long-term survival. SAS operating model will consist of four production platforms operating under the SAS brand and customer offering. Three of these will be internal airline platforms (AOCs) acting as independent operators under the SAS brand and customer promise.
We are now taking the next steps in the development.
New platform names
To better reflect the purpose and scope of each platform, SAS considers giving all airline platforms descriptive business names. The rationale behind this is to highlight that all platforms have complementing roles to play and are vital to SAS' future existence.
SAS wishes that the names focus on what type of production each platform should operate instead of geographical set-up. This is a disruptive era in the market and the character of demand in each geographical area might change over time. Functional names will therefore provide a more correct image of each platform’s role.
Therefore, a decision has been made to rename SAS Ireland and decide the name for SAS Midsize. SAS Ireland will have the business name SAS Connect, which will be reflected in IATA and ICAO registration. SAS Connect is a vital platform for SAS to continue to be an infrastructural provider in Scandinavia that connects Scandinavia with the rest of the world on highly competitive routes, characterized by a large share of leisure demand.
SAS Link will be the name of the airline operating a future in-house regional and midsized aircraft fleet. SAS Link is a vital platform for SAS to continue as infrastructural provider in Scandinavia that links traffic on smaller routes, that are unprofitable and unsustainable to operate with a large jet aircraft, with our broader network for global accessibility.
All platforms operate under the SAS brand and the names will hence not be marketed externally.
Since SAS Scandinavia will no longer be the only SAS Group platform based in Scandinavia, a new internal name for SAS Scandinavia is currently considered to align with the descriptive name usage across all platforms. A possible new name of SAS Scandinavia will, however, not affect the current purpose and scope of SAS Scandinavia’s operations providing global reach.
Establishment of SAS Connect’s Copenhagen base
As previously announced, a SAS Connect base will open in Copenhagen and operations are expected to start early 2022. The possibilities to expand and open bases in Stockholm and Oslo during 2022 are currently being evaluated.
As a part of this SAS Connect Crew services A/S is established, a Danish registered SAS group company. This crew company will be the crew employer and supply the operator SAS Connect with fully trained and optimally planned crew according to the AOC’s manuals and training guidelines.
The recruitment to SAS Connect Crew services and the base at CPH will start shortly, and the recruitment and training will be handled by our strategic partner CAE in close cooperation with SAS Connect.
Everyone is welcome to apply for a crew position in SAS Connect Crew Services A/S and recruitment ads will shortly be available here.
Establishment of SAS Link AOC
A Letter of Intent on 6 Aircraft, Embraer E1´s E195 has been signed. The aircraft are to be delivered during the first half of 2022 and the final contract is planned to be completed during October. At the same time recruitment to key management positions in SAS Link AOC will shortly be initiated.
You will be kept informed as the work on strengthening our operating model continues. If you have any questions regarding the development of the operating model, please turn to your closest leader so that questions can be consolidated and internal communication can be adjusted according to your needs. For questions regarding the recruitment process, please contact your leader or HR partner.
Best regards,
Simon Pauck Hansen
EVP and COO Airline Operations»
