SAS service does the business

WHILE MOST of its competitors have axed business class on short-haul flights, Scandinavian carrier SAS continues to operate the service into Ireland, in spite of the recession.

“We saw business travel figures fall last year no doubt, but, interestingly, last October we saw an increase in business class on Dublin-Stockholm so we reintroduced the class on that route,” SAS’s Ireland manager Alan Sparling told me this week.

SAS has also introduced a cashback system for Irish small and medium-sized companies who travel regularly with the airline. And it operates across its three cabin classes – business, economy extra and economy.

Sparling said the airline carried 80,000 passengers from this country to Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm in 2009. About 14 per cent of these were business or economy extra customers. “That warrants us having the cabin,” he said.

These generated revenues of €10 million for the airline. This was down 21 per cent on 2008 but around half the decline was due to SAS scrapping its Copenhagen-Seattle route, which was used by many Irish passengers.

Sparling said one of the routes was profitable while the other two washed their faces. Its load factors were in the early to mid 70 per cent area.

The airline’s summer schedule will see it fly 24 times a week from Dublin, compared to 18 in winter.

This includes a twice daily service to Copenhagen, which acts as a hub for some Irish passengers looking to connect with the Baltic states, eastern Europe and Asia.

With SAS focused on business-class customers, will the airline be moving in to the new Terminal 2 facility in November?

“No, we weren’t invited,” Sparling said. “My belief is that you will have an anchor tenant [Aer Lingus] and long-haul carriers in T2. I don’t think you will see any European airlines in T2.”

Sparling said the existing terminal building would be “absolutely fine” for SAS. “Our customers will find it easier to get through than in the past.”

Sparling said two new routes from Dublin are under consideration. These could be flown by SAS’s subsidiaries: Blue1 and Wideroe .

“I’ve been lobbying them to operate Dublin-Helsinki,” he said. “We are constantly looking at new routes.”