FlyingMoose

Get rid of 737s, Yes.
One hub: Won't work, Danes are massively in favor but it'll cost SAS even more loyalty/revenue in SE/NO. Should rebrand to Danish Airlines if that's the plan.
Scandi crews: Yes, having Danes onboard flights with non-Danes will just cause English speaking, in general there is no need for crews speaking a given Scandinavian language in 2022 except for the occasional very senior traveler.

GUWonder

Senior travelers, but also: 1) non-senior, adult immigrants originally from some parts of Europe (primarily Eastern Europe), Asia and/or MENA; 2) the young Scandinavians and immigrants either with bad experiences in English class at Scandinavian schools or who don’t feel comfortable with English for whatever other reason.

Sweden is still acting like it wants to exit from being a long term shareholder in SAS. That exit posturing may be just what is needed to set SAS on course toward a more concentrated single-hub approach. I think that hub would be CPH.

Maybe Finnair will pick up where SAS leaves.

FlyingMoose

I'm getting more and more hopeful of that given the development of their network.

oliver2002

B737 are already on their way out and supposed to be be operated by Link/Connect. Hence the revolt of the NO pilots: they used to operate the 737 fleet in Norway with legacy contracts that date from the Braathens days. A359/A330 share a common pilot type rating and are perfect for SAS allowing for flexible capacity/range. For all practical purposes they operate out of CPH, the OSL/ARN ops of the widebodies are seasonal and figleafs to placate stakeholders.

GUWonder

Does Finnair really want to end up more like SAS with having a secondary long-haul hub? They are dipping their feet into the water, but didn’t SAS also dip its feet into the secondary hub water en route to ending up like it has with too many long-haul hubs?

CPH-Flyer

I think Finnair just want to not keep their planes parked. Some revenue is better than zero revenue. Arlanda as an AY long haul base will go away again, but with Putin's war and China remaining closed that may be a bit longer off than I would initially have guessed.

FlyingMoose

I see Finnair spin up routes like DFW, SEA from HEL with excellent timing and LAX from ARN that does a whole lot more for my travel than SK has done in years.

I've seen no revenue data on these activities though, I do not know if they are successful or what the future might bring for them. I just subjectively see very full ARN-LAX planes, like I used to see when SK operated the route.

Given their challenges with Russian airspace being closed and SK's general challenges, putting heads together might make sense.

oliver2002

If you have the time and interest you can run the numbers via Eurostat and figure out the load factors... https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/main/data/database

jamesbrownontheroad

The 2nd E195 for SAS Link flew from EXT to CPH on 13 July and entered commercial service on 15 July.

SE-RSO (formerly G-FBEK of FlyBe) and SE-RSK (formerly G-FBEG) are now flying European routes from CPH, but they also routinely fly to BGO, which seems to be their only current Nordic destination and the only place you will find them nightstopping away from CPH.

jamesbrownontheroad

The 3rd E195, SE-RSM (formerly G-FBEI of FlyBe) has joined the SAS Link fleet, flying from NWI to CPH yesterday, 4 August 2022 as SK9150. Its first commercial flight is SK1685 CPH-MXP today, Friday 5 August 2022.

jamesbrownontheroad

Unrelated to my previous post (#85), A321-232 LN-RKK has emerged from storage today to take a proving flight from OSL towards SKF and back. Could be routine care and maintenance or it could be returning to service shortly.

FlyingMoose

Has anyone flown the SK E195s yet? Any experiences?

jamesbrownontheroad

Yes, CPH-BCN a couple of months ago. I’ve actually l flown in most of the delivered or ordered frames before, when they were with FlyBe. The seats are the same, but I think they’ve been reupholstered. I like the E195 from a passenger perspective, with almost full-size bins and comfortable seats. I had an exit row so I can’t comment on the regular legroom. They are much more spacious than the CRJ.

SK2751

I have been on E195 operated by SAS Link earlier today. I was super distracted with some urgent work, so I only realized half way through the (short) flight that this is an E195 not a CRJ. I always thought that Embraers have more comfortable cabin than CRJs (the small size increment does matter; more spacious, not hitting my head, bigger luggage bins, boarding from a jet-way, etc). But I also thought that they are uglier and the cabin interior is less pleasant on average. This is probably because they are more heavily used by airlines that care about the interior design less (US feeder airlines, LO, and such).

I have to say that the SK Embraers are vey nice. The Cabin is fitted with new seats, new bulkheads in SK style. The seats (even though they have the standard ugly shape known from other Embraers) are way more comfortable than NEKs. There is a proper seat pocket that can house a small laptop. The seat is softer and wider than average these days (or appears to be ...). All-in-all a very nice experience. I will be glad to see more of these flights.

jamesbrownontheroad

G-FBEF (to become SE-RSI) did a proving flight out of NWI about two weeks ago, so its arrival as the fourth E195 for SAS Link might be imminent.