Focusing on direct routes to popular destinations, SAS’s 2016/2017 Winter Programme will open up 470,000 more seats to travellers in Scandinavia than last year, and will see an increase in flight frequency on selected domestic and European routes.

When the SAS winter schedule is rolled out at the end of October, travellers in Scandinavia will have access to a broader range of departures to popular destinations domestically, within Scandinavia and in Europe.

“We are always working to improve the offering we deliver to our customers. In addition to flying to popular winter vacation destinations and continuing to invest our energies on Asia and the USA, we are now also increasing the number of departures on popular routes,” said Evind Roald, commercial director, SAS.

Increased demand on the Swedish market means that Kiruna and Amsterdam will now receive three daily flights from Stockholm instead of two. SAS is adding a further daily departure to Helsinki, bringing the total to nine a day, whilst the direct route to Trondheim is set to be increased from one to two daily departures.

Travellers on domestic flights within Denmark will have access to an additional 38,000 seats. The bulk of this increase will be on the Copenhagen - Ålborg route. In addition to the new direct route to Miami, which will be launched in September, more flights are set to be added on the company’s Krakow, Vienna, Reykjavik and Faro routes, making them year-round destinations from Copenhagen. In addition, SAS will also continue to offer a fourth daily departure between Copenhagen and Stuttgart.

The increasing number of tourists looking to enjoy winter activities and the spectacle of the Northern Lights in north Norway has seen SAS take the step of further strengthening its offering to Tromsö, Bodö and Svalbard during this coldest part of the year. In total, capacity on flights between Oslo and North Norway will increase by around 90,000 seats. Notably, the number of departures on the Stockholm - Tromsö route will increase from two to four during the mid-winter period.

In addition, the number of daily departures from Oslo to Helsinki will also increase, going from the current two to three. Furthermore, the Oslo - Rome route will also benefit from flights year-round.

Following the introduction of the Winter Programme, SAS will have launched a number of new year-round routes during 2016, including Copenhagen to Boston, Miami, Reykjavik, Vienna, Krakow and Faro; Oslo to Miami; and Stockholm to Los Angeles and Gdansk.

The investment in the new cabin layout of SAS aircraft, as well as the overhaul of the entire SAS long-haul fleet, has now been completed. This will see the number of seats available on its intercontinental flights to the USA and Asia this autumn increase by 17 percent (130,000 seats).