In a statement made on Wednesday, the loss-making Scandinavian airline SAS denied a report that it has planned to ask its staff to accept salary cuts of between 10 and 15 percent, though the airline is already into several measures pertaining to cost reduction from several angles. Earlier, Borsen, the Danish business daily reported on Wednesday that SAS has decided to persuade its staff to accept lower wages after the firm unveiling its second-quarter results on 14th August.

SAS spokeswoman Elisabeth Manzi noted, "We are not going to cut any salaries.â€Â� Borsen cited a source very close to the senior management when it reported that the airline that was half-owned by Sweden, Norway and Denmark was actually reacting to the pressures that are continuously haunting its business operations, levying a heavy pressure.

Citing a source close to senior management, Borsen said the airline, half-owned by Sweden, Norway and Denmark, was reacting to continued pressures in its business. The source also told the paper, "The management will ask for pay cuts, and 10 to 15 percent has been mentioned.â€Â� In fact, the report went to the extent of adding that the salary reductions would be across the board anytime.

According to a statement made by the chief executive of Scandinavian carrier SAS, the airline industry is compelled to face a tough and challenging time during this year and the next year due to the issues of alarming rise of oil prices and overcapacity.

Telling about the airline industry as a whole, SAS chief executive Mats Jansson told Norwegian daily Dagens Naeringsliv, "There will be short-term rescue actions, drastic measures."

According to him, a "deadly cocktail" of factors are combining during these times threatening to weaken the airline industry. He noted, "This is worse than after 9/11, worse than during the oil crisis of the 1970s. There is no direct bankruptcy threat to SAS anymore, but measures must be taken."

On Thursday, Scandinavian carrier SAS said that it had abandoned its schemes to sell its loss-making unit Spanair as a result of challenging market conditions, bringing its shares ten per cent down.

The carrier, half-owned by Sweden, Denmark and Norway, revealed in a statement that a tough market in Spain, sky-rocketing prices of fuel and turbulence in the financial market meant it had not accomplished its targets and conditions for the bookings.

Mats Jansson, chief executive of the carrier, said, "The value we could realize does not reflect the underlying value in Spanair".

On Tuesday SAS, Scandinavian carrier, said that group traffic for the month of May, recorded by revenue traveller kilometers, increased 12.5 per cent annually.

The carrier, which is half controlled by the governments of Sweden, Norway and Denmark, said that its passenger load factor increased 0.7 percentage points twelve monthly to 71.7 per cent. The profit in the month of April, the latest month for which unit revenue figures are out, was up five per cent annually.

The airline, however, said that it hoped the profit this month to be declined by 5 to 6 per cent, continuing that the fuel surcharges would slowly hope profit going forward, but had limited effect in the month of May.

Spain's Iberia said on Thursday that it would give up its bid for Spanair, shortly after the Chairman said that the carrier was reconsidering its stand on the move due to tough times in the industry.

In a statement issued to the Spanish Stock Exchange after the closing of the market, Iberia said that it would take out its bid as there was no agreement on conditions of the offer.

Shares of the airline all over the world have been affected in recent months as a result of a huge rise in oil prices and a slowdown in economic development, making its bid steeper than when the board of the Spanish carrier passed an offer in the month of February.

On Thursday, Scandinavian Airlines SAS, which is half-owned by Sweden, Denmark and Norway, said that it was no longer being probed for unlawful behaviour in relation to two crash landings of Bombardier Dash 8 aircraft in the month of September a year ago. It is big relief for the air carrier, as it mars its operations among the customers who tend to avoid using their services due to frequent crashes.

In a statement, the carrier said that it welcomed the decision by a Swedish legal representative, which was connected to two crash landings, in Denmark and Lithuania. Now, the airlines would be able to pose a good image of its services before its customers, which was a bit tarnished due to running of two cases.

However, the airline's statement did not make any mention of a third crash landing that took place in Copenhagen, weeks after the occurrence of first two crash landings-perhaps, in future, the airlines would be able to speak about it with more clarity.

Generally, summer is the most expensive time for flying to Europe. However, falsifying this statement, SAS is offering several cheap offers comparable to Easter prices over the summer schedule.

Introducing a very attractive scheme to benefit its customers, SAS Sverige provides a rare chance to book tickets to a number of European city destinations starting from SEK 399, with the price including taxes and fees. The notable among these destinations are Amsterdam, London, Brussels, Rome, Dublin, Berlin, Paris, Zagreb and Edinburgh. Under this offer, flight services are also available to London from Gothenburg.

Tobias Jänsson, the head of European services at SAS Sverige observes, "Our customers are seeking trips to major European cities and we want to offer them the possibility to travel in Europe at a favorable price this summer, when many people take vacation."

In a recent move, on the network of its long-haul routes, SAS Scandinavian Airlines has upgraded its premium economy class and Economy Extra. The service class aims to serve the interests of both business travelers and leisure travelers and is now equipped with a dedicated crew, besides an improved meal service and an improved attention to fine details. This is certainly a great news for passengers of SAS airlines.

The Director of Product Concepts - SAS International Gunilla Ait El Mekki observes, "Constant improvement is important in our ambition to keep Economy Extra at the leading edge of the airline industry. We are continuously reviewing our product offerings and we felt it was natural to upgrade certain in-flight aspects. We have focused both on the quantity and quality of food, as well as how we present it."

The Chief Executive Officer of SAS International Lars Sandahl Sorensen added, "Economy Extra is a unique selling point for SAS, and is a service class that attracts both business travelers and leisure travelers wanting an alternative to Economy. Economy Extra is therefore the key for us to continuously review our product offering to ensure it is a class of its own."

SAS Sverige has designed a biometric solution for handling passengers' luggage at Arlanda and Landvetter to offer its customers, an easier and smoother travel. Surprisingly, about 50 percent of all passengers traveling on SAS's domestic flights carry baggage and this move is sure to offer them great convenience employing the biometric solution.

The brand new biometric solution will require passengers provide their fingerprints while checking in their baggage, where their fingerprints will be stored temporarily for further analysis. Once onboard, the passengers will provide their fingerprint once again, which will be matched with the fingerprint that was given by them earlier at the baggage check-in counter.

The main aim of this biometric solution is to ensure whether the person checking in the baggage is also the same one boarding the aircraft, but carried out in a smoother and more friendly manner than today. Since matching the baggage and person is a legal requirement necessary for airlines, presently the process is carried out with the help of simple ID documents.

SAS Sverige has decided to add Zagreb and Stavanger as new summer destinations. Also, two additional routes are to be operated to Nice with effect from this summer, one flying from Ängelholm and the other operated from Växjö. Over and above, this summer is also going to see a new route between Stockholm and Tromsö--so there is a lot of expansion from the airlines.

With effect from 30th March, the number of departures from many of the Scandinavian, Swedish and European destinations is to be increased owing to the increasing demand from the passengers. The services between Stockholm and Zagreb are to commence on the 31st of March with departures scheduled on the afternoons of Monday and Friday from Arlanda. The services to Zagreb are to depart on Wednesdays with effect from 30th April. On 30th March, the departures on the Stockholm - Stavanger route are to commence with services on the mornings of Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

The Commercial Director for SAS Sverige Susanne Dahlberg remarked, "The new routes are a continuation of our strong expansion in Europe. Destinations to Croatia and Norway are due to increasing interest in flights to these countries primarily as tourist destinations, but also as business destinations. SAS Sverige is strengthening its position as the airline that flies to most destinations and has the most departures. The fact that we are also the airline in Sweden that sells most low-price tickets means that we have a very competitive customer offering."

From the 27th of June, passengers will have a link to the Swedish capital as SAS Scandinavian Airlines will be reintroducing its summer service from Bristol International Airport to Stockholm-Arlanda Airport. SAS is on a great expansion spree and more offers could be on hands. So, passengers should watch out for more flights from the airlines.

The carrier will operate its service on Mondays and Fridays. The prices for this service are beginning at just £49 one way.

The service comes soon after an announcement by the carrier that it would start operating its services on a route between Bristol and Oslo next year.

Recently, SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) has launched www.flysas.ae  a dedicated UAE website to provide more information on the airline's brand new Dubai-Copenhagen route, in addition to providing special offers. Most notably, SAS is the fourth largest airline group in Euroep and the leading carrier in Scandinavia. Recently, SAS has introduced a non-stop, thrice-weekly service between the emirate and the Danish capital. This is the first ever service that directly links UAE with Scandinavia.

Both customers and travel agents can access the interactive online tool, which provides round the clock information related to fares, products and service, special offers and the complete list of SAS's global destinations. These features renders the air-travel experience of SAS airlines a unique and new one.

Magnus Engstrom, the General Manager UAE, SAS remarked, "This tailor-made site has been specially designed to serve our local customers better as it provides discounted fares, as well as real-time support throughout the booking process."

A new dedicated UAE travel business website www.sassalesinfo.com has been launched by SAS Scandinavian Airlines, which will provide information on the carrier's products, services and fares at all hours.

The idea of a dedicated website emerges because SAS is preparing to start its three times a week non-stop service from Dubai to Copenhagen from 1st November.

The new website provides information and news about the carrier's online check-in facility, customer loyalty programme EuroBonus details, the latest information on fares and offers on the new services.

From April next year, Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) will begin operating its flights between Bristol and Oslo. This is one of the eagerly anticipated route for passengers looking to travel to Oslo, and now as SAS is offering the flights, they have a great option to travel from Bristol.

After offering services successfully of its fresh Bristol to Stockholm route which it launched earlier this year, the airline will now start offering its services from the West Country airport to the Norwegian capital on 1st April, 2008.

The airline will offer a three times a week flight on this route: on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. For the new service, the price of tickets will start from £29 one-way, including all the taxes. You can check the official site of the airlines to book your tickets according to the schedule.

With several innovative measures, the long-haul Business class of the SAS Scandinavian Airlines has been enhanced to provide hassle free and simpler travelling experience. Some of the attractive new features include a new comfort kit, last-minute Business class fare, and an upgraded audio/video-on-demand besides a "breakfast on the go" scheme.

The newly introduced Business Class fare makes a seat available even until the neck of departure time. The brand new 'A' class fare is presently implemented on all of the non-stop routes of SAS between Copenhagen/Stockholm and Beijing, Bangkok, Chicago, Seattle, Dubai, New York, Washington DC, and Tokyo.

Commenting on the move, Lars Sandahl Sørensen, Chief Commercial Officer, SAS International observed, "SAS offers greater fare flexibility and more choice than other airlines, and we now offer customers several Business class fares - from a fully flexible fare to a more restricted fare, the Fixed Business fare. We also offer full service class combinability, making it possible to travel in Business one-way and Economy Extra the other. So finding a suitable Business class travel solution has been made been easier."

Non-stop service between Copenhagen and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates will be commenced on October 31 by Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), the first package to Dubai from Scandinavia.

Three days a week flight will be operated – Sunday, Wednesday and Saturday-with suitable connections to and from Seattle. Dubai is one of the world's recognized emerging cities, and in recent years has established itself as a major trade and tourist destination.

"SAS passengers traveling from Seattle can connect easily to our new Dubai service at Copenhagen Airport, which was ranked as Europe's best airport in 2006 by Airport Council International", said, SAS V.P The Americans Sveneric Persson.

SAS has called off all its flights with DASH-400 aircrafts, the same category of aircraft that has been taken in two of its emergency dramatic landings. SAS has brought back eleven of its planes from different European airports to the airline's base in Stockholm and Copenhagen. At these locations, the planes will be thoroughly examined.

The grounded planes will not will fly until they receive a clear signal from Norwegian Air Traffic and Airport Management. But after getting the clear signal the planes will not be in the skies for the next few days. With this cancellation of these aircrafts from flying, there would be major loss of flights.

In order to bring down the number of cancellations of the flights, the carrier has rented aircrafts from other airline operators, but the present cancellations of its flights may end up costing the airline more than 100 million Danish Kroners.

Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), the champion multi-national carrier for Denmark, Sweden and Norway and the dominating airline in Scandinavia, is introducing a three times a week, non-stop flight from Dubai to the Danish capital Copenhagen from November 1.

The new service will be the first to directly connect the UAE with Scandinavia. It will run throughout the months of winter until the March end next year.
 
SAS will operate its new service from Dubai International Airport three days a week-Mondays, Thursdays and Sundays. For operating the service, SAS will use a wide-bodied, 245-seater Airbus A340 with an arrangement of three classes: SAS Business, Economy Extra and Economy Class.
 
Per Moller Jensen, Head of Europe, Middle East and Africa, SAS, said, "Travel between Scandinavia and Dubai is growing by about 20% annually and there are currently over 300 Danish, Swedish and Norwegian companies operating in the emirate, most of which are SAS' most important corporate customers".

Jensen also said, "Aside from the business tourism market, Dubai is also becoming an increasingly popular leisure destination for Nordic travellers looking for long-weekend breaks and golfing holidays and this new service is one step towards meeting this growing demand. We also anticipate there will be strong traffic flying via Dubai to other GCC countries, as well as India, Pakistan and Iran".
 
"Conversely, Copenhagen Airport can be used as a hub for many connecting flights throughout Scandinavia and the Baltic countries and will be the Middle East's gateway to Northern Europe", added Jensen.

With JPMorgan Chase & Co. increasing the earnings estimates for the company by 15 percent for this year, the shares of SAS Group, owner of Scandinavian Airlines, rose up to the level unseen in the past 21/2 years.

In the biggest jump since Dec 23, 2004, the stocks of the company gained 9 kronor, or 7.1 percent, to 136 kronor in Stockholm. With the above said rise of 17 percent, the company's value has gone up to 22.4 billion kronor ($3.28 billion).

For the year 2007, JPMorgan raised estimates for earnings per share to 11.01 kronor. The value of the raise for the year 2008 is at 18 percent to 15.08 kronor. These raises are adjusted with 2006 loss of 0.26 krona a share. These calculations excluded one-time gains or costs. SAS based in Stockholm remarked on August 9th that the profit rise in the second quarter was certainly less than what the analysts expected. This was because there were several cancellations of flights due to strikes. Most surprisingly, the shares fell the most during the past six years on that day reaching a 4 1/2-month low on 10th August.

In a significant development, Scandinavian airline SAS observed on Friday that the company has solved the hatchet with its Danish Unions. After wage revisions in 2007, all the four organizations have pledged to work for a "no-strike situation".

The strikes at its Danish and Swedish units caused a loss of millions of dollars to the company. This year, the airlines had to call off many of its services due to stringent competition from low-cost carriers and higher fuel costs during recent years.

Commenting on the scene, Mats Jansson, the Chief Executive of SAS remarked that at least in future, the company must avoid new strikes by bringing in initiatives including profit-sharing programmes and share-ownership programmes.

An official of the Latvia's transport ministry said on Tuesday that the ministry is waiting for an offer from Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) for discussions to raise a stake in airBaltic, with any scheme seeming to appear in the month of September or October.

A spokesman for the transport minister said, "At the moment we are waiting for a proposal from SAS, which we expect to come in September, October this year".

This comment from the transport ministry came out in response to a question about a report that cited the transport minister as declaring talks were probable to resume in the autumn.

The Spanair's divestment is motivated by a strategic decision to focus on Scandinavia, declares SAS AB's chief executive Mats Jansson. The airline group's planned divestment has no concern with recent decline in earnings of Spain's second largest carrier, Spanair. This statement cleared the air over the issue of disinvestment decision by SAS in Spanair-people were guessing that it is motivated by the decline in its earnings.

Jansson said, "We are not selling out Spanair for financial reasons. It's in line with our new business idea which says we are Scandinavian company, and we should concentrate on Scandinavian customers. That's why Spanair could not belong in our group".

Explaining broadly on the financial matters of the company Jansson remarked that the synergies SAS has been able to extract from Spanair 'have not been so big'.

SAS AB has come out with a Q2 pretax profit of 800 mln skr, almost double from the last year's 442 mln skr. But, the reported pretax profit is well below market forecasts that was expecting it to be around 1.143 bln skr.

The second quarter result was adversely moved by 350 mln skr as compared tothe proceeding year as a result of t strikes, and SAS AB's joint venture with Lufthansa.

The group sales were a bi moved at 16.294 bln skr, and were also less than that was forecasted by the analysts. The analysts forecasts for the group sales were about 16.903 bln skr.

Scandinavian Airlines is prepared to launch its preliminary Dubai-Copenhagen service on October 31st.

The new service will be offered three times a week on Mondays, Thursdays and Sundays. An Airbus A340 will be used to operate the service. Besides providing useful connections to Scandinavia, it will also provide links to Northern and Central Europe.

The SAS's General Manager for the UAE, Magnus Engström, on the flip side, said that in Northern Europe, there was heavy leisure demand for Dubai.

Spanish market is the cause of collision course between the two airlines: Ryanair and Spainair. Ryanair is the leading low-cost airline in Europe. It plans establishing two more operating bases in Spain.

The Irish airline, is nearly finalizing a deal in Valencia and Alicante. The carrier has the broadest spread of operations across Europe of any airline. It has 20 bases in eight countries.

The Spanish network is expected to grow to 9m passengers a year including the Madrid base. Ryanair has opened its base in Madrid having five aircrafts and 15 routes to date.

Bergen is being made to feel special this summer as preparations get underway to celebrate the death centenary year of the great composer Edvard Grieg. During the entire summer, thrice a week on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday the tourists can enjoy listening to Grieg's compositions being played in Troldhaugen, his hometown.

To start the enjoyment of the Norwegian summer with a difference, one can begin at Bergen, Norway's second largest city. Bergen has everything to offer - culture, architecture, natural beauty and city sites. Bergen is the gateway to the breathtaking fjords of Western Norway.  One can just walk around the town and admire the quaint wooden buildings in Bryggen, which are reminiscent of the Hans Christian Anderson fairytales.  Bryggen is now a World Heritage site. 

To take advantage of Bergen's unique offering, Scandinavian Airlines system or SAS as its popularly known is focusing on adding new routes in the Nordic Regions. Susanne Dahlberg, Commercial Director at Scandinavian Airlines Sverige, holder of 42.8% in the SAS consortium, says that customers are looking for newer and more exciting places to visit in the Nordic region and Europe. Travelers are always looking for direct flights from Arlanda airport at Stockholm to their choice destinations.

SAS airways is about to launch green flights over the Atlantic from the east coast of the United States to Stockholm/Arlanda. Airbus A330s will be introduced for the purpose. The announcement was made on 6th July, 2007. The objective behind the initiative is to cut down the pollution level, so as to have a safe environment.

The existing joint green flights project between SAS Sverige and LFV (the Swedish Civil Aviation Administration) will get an extra mileage with SAS's new initiative for natural development. Till date, the airline has implemented 1500 green approaches with the SAS Sverige's Boeing 737 in Arlanda.  

The green approaches with the Boeing 737, is able to save an average of 150 kilograms aircraft fuel or 475 kilograms carbon dioxide with per landing at Arlanda. Since, the aircrafts are larger and heavier, therefore it is possible to save the potential of approximately 200 to 300 kilograms aircraft fuel, equivalent to 600 to 950 kilograms carbon dioxide.

As part of the summer 2008 program, SAS Scandinavia airline is about to augment the flight frequencies between Scandinavia and China. It made the announcements on 6th July, 2007. From April 2008, the airline will operate 13 weekly services from Scandinavia and China.

The real objective of this new flight network program is to manage the increasing potential traffic from Scandinavia and China. Since, Beijing will host the next year Olympic games, therefore the airline took the initiative and introduced a non-stop flight from Stockholm and Beijing in March 2007, which is to render potentiality to the existing Copenhagen-Beijing route.

Lars Sandahl Sørensen, the Chief Commercial Officer of SAS International, said that SAS is very much committed to China and is therefore set to augment flight frequencies, so as to render more flexibility and choices to the travelers. However, SAS is very much grateful to Air China (the SAS partner), for making their dream of expanding the operation network, very much possible.

SAS Scandinavian Airlines has said yes to a contract with Dnata Travel Services as General Sales Agent to sell for the airline in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The services that Dnata will offer include booking service, call centre services, ticket sales as well as an airport ticket office at Dubai International Airport.

Furthermore, Dnata will be supporting and executing the activities related to sales and marketing along with a travel agency help desk, aiming to increase the product awareness and SAS brand in the UAE.

German airline Lufthansa is intending to purchase Spanair. The Spanish daily Cinco Dias on Monday stated that Scandinavian travel group SAS has put up the second-biggest Spanish airline for sale, which would further strengthen the hold of Lufthansa on European airlines. The deal could mean a great benefit to the airlines offering more routes and flights to the ever growing demand of its passengers across whole of Europe.

SAS is interested in concentrating its attention on its flagship carrier, Scandinavian Airlines which also includes its smaller airlines Blue 1, Wideroe, airBaltic and Estonian Air.

"Lufthansa, which is already linked to Spanair within the Star Alliance of which SAS and Spanair are members, is also considering a bid to take over the Spanish company from SAS", the newspaper sources close to Spanair quoted.

SAS Sveroge's Boeing 737 and LFV (the Swedish Civil Aviation Administration), promulgated green flights over the North Atlantic commencing during the latter part of 2007, primarily from the east coast of the US to Stockholm/Arlanda involving the usage of Airbus A330's.

As a natural development of the existing system, it adds to the reduction of emission and save fuel strategy. Boeing Green Flight approach will result its saving potential of 150 kilograms aircraft fuel or approximately a 475 kilograms carbon dioxide per landing at Arlanda.

SAS and LVF jointly says, " We are first in the world to use technical support to  implement green approaches and are very happy to be able to jointly continue the already established path to also include the project with intercontinental green flights. We are fully convinced that this is the future".

SAS airlines declared a group traffic increase of 6.6% year-on-year in June after a rise of 1.7 percent the previous month. The group has admitted that there had been a continued growth experience in airline market; however, nothing can be said about the strength of future growth and jet fuel prices, which can play a major role in determination of traffic.

It is noticeable here that SAS airlines has slashed its costs and restructured over the last five years, showcasing its continued efforts to address growing competition and soaring fuel costs. Fuel cost has major impacts on any airlines and traffic of any airlines also depends upon on this. SAS has addressed this issue quite well, but due to uncertain future, nothing can be said about how the airline service would fare.

The company decided that it will concentrate on its core business from now on. The main business of SAS is concentrated upon flying to, from and within Northern Europe. This means that SAS might sell-off non-core operations, which may see its such its Spanair unit going away, and sell-off of Air Greenland and its 20 percent stake in UK carrier BMI. Recent news has shown that Spanair experienced a rise in its traffic by a whopping 17.6% in June compared with the same month last year; however, SAS said that bookings are lower and there are around 60 cancelled flights due to industrial action by cabin attendants.

To strengthen the SAS Groups position as Northern Europes leading airline the Board of Directors of SAS has decided to give the company a new direction. SAS is to concentrate on its core business - flying to, from and within Northern Europe, the home market of their most important customer groups and where SAS market position is also the strongest.

Certain operations that do not belong to the core business - such as Spanair - will be sold. Results are to be created for future capital expenditure and development.

"The airline market is changing rapidly. We want to be in the forefront in terms of giving customers the best service and the most attractive fares," says SAS CEO Mats Jansson. To ensure our development and cover our future investment needs we must from now until 2011 increase our pre-tax profit to approximately SEK 4 billion per year while simultaneously lowering our costs by SEK 2.8 billion. For example, we will be scaling back the central administration and moving the headquarters from Frösundavik as soon as this is practicable.

To the great merriment of business and leisure travelers, SAS Scandinavian Airlines introduces an improved fare structure, attracting more customers by creating more flexibility and choice, and alleviating much fewer rules and restrictions on its international flights.

Three classes introduced in the new fare structure consists-Economy, Economy Extra and Business-and splitting into three ticket categories: Flexible, Fully Flexible and Fixed.

Lars Sandahl Sorensen, Chief Commercial Officer, SAS International says, "We have noticed a strong need for more choice amongst travelers and our new SAS fares have been created to simply offer passengers much greater choice. Now they can tailor make their own trips, mixing both fares and classes to fully suit their own needs. Our new fares aimed at both business and leisure travelers, separately".

Encouraged by the achievement of continuous market growth, SAS AB group announced its total passenger traffic, measured in revenue passenger kilometers (RPK), being up 6.6% in June from the last year.

Growth trend shows Scandinavian Airlines business, RPK advanced 1.1 pct from a year earlier, whereas travelers load factor lessened 0.1 percentage point to 79.8 pct.

The group including Scandinavian Airlines, Spanair, SAS Braathens and Wideroe, expressed growth of the total number of passengers transported from 6.9 pct to 3.97 million year-on-year.