SAS ready for winter comeback
by ArabianBusiness.com staff writer on Thursday, 09 October 2008
Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) is ready to make its Middle East comeback as it gets set to reintroduce its three times weekly Dubai-Copenhagen service on October 30.
The departure days have changed from Monday, Thursday, Sunday to Monday, Thursday, Friday and the flight departure has altered slightly to 9.05am (instead of 9.45am last year).
The Friday flight was changed due to "popular demand" according to the airline's new general manager, UAE, Anna Lyczak-Czepukojc, who replaced Magnus Engstrom.
She said hoped such strong demand for the SAS service - load factors averaged more than 80% last season - would persuade her bosses to operate the service all year round.
"We see there is a demand and there are some positive vibrations coming from head office," she told ATN. "We see the UAE as a future market for us and we know there are customers other than business travellers and Scandinavians who want to use our service, not just in the winter, but in the summer too."
Lyczak-Czepukojc said her "one-woman show" was working hard to foster strong relationships with the business community as well as the Scandinavian society and official representations.
The airline's GSA in Dubai is Dnata Agencies and both Lyczak-Czepukojc and Engstrom have visited key travel trade partners to make them aware that the SAS service will soon resume.
SAS has also introduced special launch fares for the first four flights from Dubai to Copenhagen, priced AED 1400 (US $381) excluding taxes. A longer campaign to run until mid-December offers fares of AED 1800 ($490) return, which will also cover onward flights to Stockholm, Oslo and Helsinki.
Lyczak-Czepukojc said the airline's connections to Scandinavia, northern Europe and the Balkan states were its key selling points, along with its flexible fares that allow passengers to mix and match their travel categories.
For example, they might choose Economy Extra for the daytime service and Business Class for the night flight when they need a flatbed.
The Dubai-Copenhagen route will be served by an Airbus 340 configured with 46 seats in Business Class (with the new SAS Business Sleepers), 28 in Economy Extra and 171 in Economy Class.
Visit www.sasgroup.net
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