Scandinavian airline SAS expands in USA, adds two new cities

Scandinavian carrier SAS is expanding in the USA, announcing three routes from two new U.S. destinations.

The carrier plans to begin flying between Los Angeles and Stockholm in March with one daily round-trip flight during the summer. The schedule will drop to five to six weekly round-trips during the winter schedule. And, from Miami, SAS says it plans to add service to both Copenhagen and Oslo in the fall of 2016. The airline says it will offer three weekly flights on both Miami routes.

The L.A. flights will launch March 17. Tickets for the Miami routes will go on sale "later this fall," SAS says.

The expansion will give SAS seven destinations in the U.S. Its others are Chicago O'Hare, Houston Bush Intercontinental, Newark Liberty, San Francisco and Washington Dulles. SAS is a member of the Star Alliance frequent-flier group, which also includes United, Air Canada, Lufthansa and All Nippon (ANA), among others.

Beyond the new routes, SAS plans to add additional flights on four of its existing U.S. routes. Beginning next year, the carrier will add one extra flight each week on the following routes: Stockholm-Chicago, Stockholm-Newark, Oslo-Newark, Copenhagen-San Francisco.

ELSEWHERE ON THE WEB: SAS will launch direct flights to Los Angeles, Miami in 2016 (Australian Business Traveller)

"We know that our frequent fliers want flexible travel with a good timetable and daily departures," SAS CEO Rickard Gustafson says in astatement. "These new direct routes together with the renewal of our long haul fleet and our broad network, mean we have far and away the strongest offer between Scandinavia and the USA."

The new SAS routes come as its faces increasing competition from another Scandinavian airline – upstart low-cost carrier Norwegian Air Services. At Fort Lauderdale – less than 30 miles north of Miami International – Norwegian already offers service to the three biggest Scandinavian metro areas (Copenhagen, Stockholm and Oslo). Norwegian also flies the same routes from Los Angeles. Norwegian flies only a few weekly flights on most of those routes.

As for SAS, its arrival was lauded by officials at Miami International.

"This is a big deal for us," Miami-Dade Aviation Director Emilio González tells The Miami Herald. "It fills a gap that we wanted filled."

Besides the U.S. expansion, SAS also will add nonstop service to Hong Kong. Flights from Stockholm will begin in September. The airline's other Asian destinations are Beijing, Shanghai and Tokyo.

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