3 A321LR for SAS from H1 2020
Jan 23, 2019, 6:30 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: CPH
Programs: SK-EBD
Posts: 1,273
3 A321LR for SAS from H1 2020
This could be interesting.
From press release:
SAS EXPANDS ITS FLEET – LEASES THREE A321 LONG RANGE
SAS has signed a leasing agreement with ALC (Air Lease Corporation) which means SAS will expand its aircraft fleet with three Airbus A321LR. This gives SAS an opportunity to offer travelers more intercontinental routes, fewer stopovers and shorter travel times to and from Scandinavia. The first aircraft will enter into service in the first half of 2020.
The aircraft has sufficient range to reach Northeast US, one of the most important intercontinental markets for SAS. The A321LR can also reach destinations in Canada, the Middle East and India from Scandinavia.
“We are looking forward to launching new routes and to evaluate the A321LR in production,” says Rickard Gustafson, President and CEO, SAS.
SAS current flies wide-body aircraft that seat up to 266 passengers on its intercontinental routes. The A321LR is a smaller aircraft, which gives SAS the opportunity to fill the aircraft on new routes. For example, these can be new destinations on smaller markets or existing destinations from smaller airports.
SAS is now in the process of deciding on the first routes and cabin configuration of the aircraft. The new routes will gradually be communicated from spring 2019. The first A321LR will enter into service in the first half of 2020.
From press release:
SAS EXPANDS ITS FLEET – LEASES THREE A321 LONG RANGE
SAS has signed a leasing agreement with ALC (Air Lease Corporation) which means SAS will expand its aircraft fleet with three Airbus A321LR. This gives SAS an opportunity to offer travelers more intercontinental routes, fewer stopovers and shorter travel times to and from Scandinavia. The first aircraft will enter into service in the first half of 2020.
The aircraft has sufficient range to reach Northeast US, one of the most important intercontinental markets for SAS. The A321LR can also reach destinations in Canada, the Middle East and India from Scandinavia.
“We are looking forward to launching new routes and to evaluate the A321LR in production,” says Rickard Gustafson, President and CEO, SAS.
SAS current flies wide-body aircraft that seat up to 266 passengers on its intercontinental routes. The A321LR is a smaller aircraft, which gives SAS the opportunity to fill the aircraft on new routes. For example, these can be new destinations on smaller markets or existing destinations from smaller airports.
SAS is now in the process of deciding on the first routes and cabin configuration of the aircraft. The new routes will gradually be communicated from spring 2019. The first A321LR will enter into service in the first half of 2020.
Jan 23, 2019, 8:02 am
#2
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: AGH
Posts: 5,980
Great... did a couple of rotations CPH-BOS and IAH-SVG in the 737. Always liked it, even though the J seat was horrible outdated. Assuming the J seat in the A321LR is decent I'd welcome a narrow body service to the east coast.
Jan 23, 2019, 8:14 am
#3
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: CPH
Programs: SK*G (EBD), AY Silver
Posts: 22
Not a surprise, but will be very interesting to see the configuration of the planes! I wonder if they'll even have the Business class Lie-flat seats or just 2 class with the same PLUS seats as on the A330/340.
I bet they'll eventually end up with more than 3 A321LR's.
For routes:
AAR-EWR probably one? CPH-BOS daily during the winter perhaps or a mix? BGO-EWR? A lot of opertunities for routes, maybe off to ADD?
I bet they'll eventually end up with more than 3 A321LR's.
For routes:
AAR-EWR probably one? CPH-BOS daily during the winter perhaps or a mix? BGO-EWR? A lot of opertunities for routes, maybe off to ADD?
Jan 23, 2019, 12:08 pm
#5
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Koala Lemur
Programs: SK EBD LTG (*G)
Posts: 2,447
I would rather hope that they would go for a smaller US airport from one of the hubs ARN/OSL/CPH rather than duplicating existing destinations. Montreal? I naively believe that this opens for more customers than providing direct fights from smaller Scandinavian cities letting US airlines earn on connecting flights.
Jan 23, 2019, 1:38 pm
#6
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Stockholm
Programs: EuroBonus Diamond
Posts: 171
I just hope that the hard product ends up being at least as good as the newly refurbished A330/340 fleet, as well as the coming A350s. Not sure how they will make that work in business, but I am interested to see how it goes.
Jan 23, 2019, 5:12 pm
#7
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I don't think the current Vantage seats fits very well in a narrowbody, but AA has shown that the Cirrus reverse herringbone goes nicely in an A321. The B/E Diamond seat fits as well, but removes the aisle access for the window seats.. There are definitely options for full flat in a reasonable compact configuration on the A321.
Jan 23, 2019, 8:12 pm
#8
Join Date: Feb 2014
Programs: SK Pandion, BA Silver
Posts: 187
The current seat is Vantage XL. That is unlikely to fit. But Thompson seems to have developed the Vantage Solo specifically for this.
https://www.thompsonaero.com/seating-range/vantagesolo/
https://www.thompsonaero.com/seating-range/vantagesolo/
Jan 23, 2019, 8:32 pm
#9
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The current seat is Vantage XL. That is unlikely to fit. But Thompson seems to have developed the Vantage Solo specifically for this.
https://www.thompsonaero.com/seating-range/vantagesolo/
https://www.thompsonaero.com/seating-range/vantagesolo/
It could also seem very narrow, like the so called "coffin seats" on Cathay.
Jan 23, 2019, 9:20 pm
#10
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Seat 1L these days :)
Programs: AF Platinum/AY LUMO/SK EBG/baEC S/HYATT Globalist/MR LTP/A3 *G/HH Dia/IHG plat
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Perhaps SAS could open a route ex HEL 
put on some competition to AY 👍👍 I know its a slim chance but would be a welcome change.
put on some competition to AY 👍👍 I know its a slim chance but would be a welcome change.
Jan 23, 2019, 9:29 pm
#11
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They could probably do a GOT-EWR-HEL-EWR-GOT style rotation, the crew could rotate back to home base via intra Nordic A320 series flight on HEL. Could probably work. And it is not like they would need to add infrastructure in Helsinki to operate an extra A321 flight, or not much infra. Would also have my doubts on it happening, but it could.
Jan 23, 2019, 9:57 pm
#12
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Seat 1L these days :)
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They could probably do a GOT-EWR-HEL-EWR-GOT style rotation, the crew could rotate back to home base via intra Nordic A320 series flight on HEL. Could probably work. And it is not like they would need to add infrastructure in Helsinki to operate an extra A321 flight, or not much infra. Would also have my doubts on it happening, but it could.
Indeed. I am not going to be sticking with SK come next year so no bets on the game so to say but it sure could be smart move to do more route from current smaller airport IMHO.
I just hope they do more routes and more airports not just more frequencies...
Jan 24, 2019, 12:15 am
#13
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: CPH
Programs: SK*G (EBD), AY Silver
Posts: 22
Big question is also if the aircraft will be owned by SAS or SAS Ireland. I know a lot of pilots who assume they'll go to SAIL. I also read on "Børsen" behind a paywall, that they'll include both SAS Business, PLUS and GO.
Jan 24, 2019, 10:43 pm
#14
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Koala Lemur
Programs: SK EBD LTG (*G)
Posts: 2,447
They could probably do a GOT-EWR-HEL-EWR-GOT style rotation, the crew could rotate back to home base via intra Nordic A320 series flight on HEL. Could probably work. And it is not like they would need to add infrastructure in Helsinki to operate an extra A321 flight, or not much infra. Would also have my doubts on it happening, but it could.
I'd rather optimize the general reach of the network, and the average travel time over my year, rather than the single odd time when I need EWR from my secondary airport of origin. So I would rather do like KLM and LH do: give me more feeders, also early morning and late night into a hub, and get me from that hub to more US cities directly. I think this is a model that is proven to work. Of course if you fly EWR weekly, and you don't need to suffer a feeder on UA/AA after that, your perspective differs.
Jan 24, 2019, 11:46 pm
#15
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I'd be schocked if that happens. Why fly a route with no feeder traffic? I doubt one would fill the machines with only local pax, and feeding people to GOT or HEL just seems to be working against the current. I think secondary stations would benefit more from more frequent feeding into CPH than froma direct odd long haul route that most people just use a couple of years or so. Now I regularly choose to connect in MUC or FRA, because even if SK has flights to my destination, they are impossible to make with existing feeders, or they equire too much waste time waiting for the connection.
I'd rather optimize the general reach of the network, and the average travel time over my year, rather than the single odd time when I need EWR from my secondary airport of origin. So I would rather do like KLM and LH do: give me more feeders, also early morning and late night into a hub, and get me from that hub to more US cities directly. I think this is a model that is proven to work. Of course if you fly EWR weekly, and you don't need to suffer a feeder on UA/AA after that, your perspective differs.
I'd rather optimize the general reach of the network, and the average travel time over my year, rather than the single odd time when I need EWR from my secondary airport of origin. So I would rather do like KLM and LH do: give me more feeders, also early morning and late night into a hub, and get me from that hub to more US cities directly. I think this is a model that is proven to work. Of course if you fly EWR weekly, and you don't need to suffer a feeder on UA/AA after that, your perspective differs.