SAS establishes new subsidiary – E24

The airline SAS changes the name of SAS Ireland to SAS Connect, and establishes the subsidiary SAS Link, formerly known under the project name «SAS Midsize», writes DN, which refers to an internal report in SAS on Tuesday.

According to the newspaper, dismissed pilots and cabin crew must apply for jobs again in these companies.

Permitted are left

SAS has had to halve its workforce during the corona pandemic, and let around 5,000 employees leave.

However, SAS’s press manager John Eckhoff points out that all licenses for SAS employees are now back in jobs.

– All our flying employees have been allowed to have back in his «old» job. If Norwegian, job-seeking cabin crew or pilot apply, I can myself make another offer for a job in the subsidiaries, says Eckhoff to E24.

Both Connect and Link must be staffed with personnel who are directly employed in these companies. The international staffing company CAE Parc Aviation will assist in the recruitment work, SAS informs E24.

In an earlier version of this case, DN was quoted as saying that the new crew would be hired by CAE. This is a mistake.

Both companies will have to fill their own aircraft and crew stations at SAS’s largest hub, where Copenhagen is the first out.

Four units

The Danish tourism website CHECK-IN.dk announced Tuesday at SAS in the internal report confirming the establishment of four «production platforms», including Connect and Link. Three of them would be part of SAS.

– To better reflect the purpose and scope of each platform, SAS changes the names of the platforms to give them a description of the company name. The reason behind this is to emphasize that all platforms have complementary roles and are crucial for SAS’s future existence, says press manager Alexandra Lindfren Kaoukji in SAS in an e-mail to check in.

SAS Link will initially have a fleet of six smaller aircraft of types Embraer E195-E1, which will be delivered in the first half of 2022, according to the website.

The aircraft type can be configured for 116–124 seats, compared to 148 seats for the Boeing 737–700 and 180 seats for the Airbus A320neo, of which SAS has ordered 80.

Gets a new name

The third internal company is the main company, which today is called SAS Scandinavia.

However, the unit will be given a different name, as both Link and Connect will also generate air traffic in Scandinavia, according to CHECK-IN.

The fourth production unit is external, and can be integrated with aircraft and crew (wet lease) with subcontractors such as Irish CityJet and Estonian Xfly / Regional Jet, according to the website.

Thus, SAS receives three so-called Air Operators Certificates (AOC), including SAS Connect, SAS Link and SAS Scandinavia, points out Last call.

The three airlines will operate individually, but will not be marketed as all aviation markets come as SAS.

The case continues during the photograph

Must become more flexible

When the new SAS chief Anko van der Werff presented his first SAS quarterly accounts earlier this month, he was clearly on what would be his main task in the future.

– It is first and foremost to ensure that SAS is a flexible company. No one knows where the challenge is and how this pandemic is going to develop, and we must be competitive, like Van der Werff for E24 at the moment.

He added that customers are changing their travel habits, and that SAS must be able to respond to these changes.