Scandinavia-US aviation: SAS is increasingly dominant

SAS Scandinavian Airlines will add Atlanta to its US network in northern summer 2024, but will not resume two routes from secondary Scandinavian cities to New York Newark after launching them in 2023. It only operated the services from Aalborg (Denmark) and Gothenburg (Sweden) from Apr-2023 until the end of Oct-2023.

However, the broader picture for SAS in the market between Scandinavia and the United States is looking fairly solid.

Compared with 2019 - before the COVID-19 pandemic, and before the withdrawal of the low cost competitor Norwegian Air Shuttle from all three Scandinavia-US markets - SAS now has more capacity and a higher seat share.

It has increased its focus on its hub in Copenhagen, making Denmark-US even more dominant in the Scandinavia-US market than it already was.

Norse Atlantic Airways has only partially replaced Norwegian's capacity, and only in Norway-US.

Against this backdrop, the demise of SAS' two Newark routes after just one summer season can be viewed as mere tinkering.