Scandinavian Airlines

Founding

The airline was founded on 1 August 1946, when Svensk Interkontinental Lufttrafik AB (an airline owned by the Swedish Wallenberg family), Det Danske Luftfartselskab A/S, and Det Norske Luftfartselskap AS (the flag carriers of Denmark and Norway) formed a partnership to handle the combined air traffic of the three Scandinavian countries. The first president of SAS was Per Norlin. On 17 September 1946, operations started under the new entity and the first international service was conducted between Stockholm and New York. Within a half-year, SAS set a new record for carrying the heaviest single piece of air cargo across the Atlantic on a scheduled passenger airliner, by shipping a 1,400-pound electrical panel from New York to the Sandvik company in Sweden.

In 1948, the Swedish flag carrier AB Aerotransport joined SAS and quickly coordinated its European operations between both carriers. Three years later, the companies formally merged to form the SAS Consortium. When established, ownership of the airline was divided between SAS Danmark (28.6%), SAS Norge (28.6%), and SAS Sverige (42.8%), all of which were owned 50% by private investors and 50% by their governments.

Transpolar route

During 1954, SAS became the first airline to commence scheduled flights on a polar route, flying Douglas DC-6Bs from Copenhagen to Los Angeles with stops in Søndre Strømfjord (now Kangerlussuaq) in Greenland and Winnipeg in Canada, pioneering a commercial route that marked a milestone in transpolar aviation history. By the summer of 1956, traffic on the route had justified the frequency to be increased to three flights per week. The service proved relatively popular with Hollywood celebrities and members of the film industry, and the route turned out to be a publicity coup for SAS. Thanks to a tariff structure that allowed free transit to other European destinations via Copenhagen, this trans-polar route gained increasing popularity with American tourists throughout the 1950s.

In 1957, SAS was the first airline to offer around-the-world service over the North Pole via a second polar route served by Douglas DC-7Cs flying from Copenhagen to Tokyo via Anchorage International Airport in Alaska. The flight via Alaska was a compromise solution since the Soviet Union would not allow SAS, among other air carriers, to fly across Siberia between Europe and Japan, and Chinese airspace was also closed.

Jet era

In 1959, SAS entered the jet age, having procured a number of French-built Sud Aviation Caravelles as the company's first jetliner.

In addition to modern airliners, SAS also adopted innovative operating practices and systems to improve the customer experience. In 1965, it was the first airline to introduce an electronic reservation system. During 1971, SAS introduced its first Boeing 747 jumbo jet into service. Prior to the delivery of its first 747s, SAS had formed the KSS maintenance consortium with KLM and Swissair in 1969 to provide a maintenance pool and standardize aircraft specifications for the three airlines' 747 fleets. The consortium later incorporated UTA and was renamed into KSSU to jointly acquire and maintain McDonnell Douglas DC-10 widebody trijets. In 1982, SAS was recognised as the most punctual airline operating in Europe at that time.

During its first decades, the airline built two large hotels in central Copenhagen, SAS Royal Hotel (5 stars) and the even larger SAS Hotel Scandinavia (4 stars, with a casino on the 26th floor). In 1980, SAS opened its first hotel outside of Scandinavia, the SAS Kuwait Hotel. By 1989, SAS's hotel division owned a 40 percent share in the Intercontinental Hotels Group. Following the deregulation of commercial aviation in Europe and the competitive pressures from new rivals, SAS experienced economic difficulties (as did many incumbent flag carrier airlines) this heavily contributed to the airline's decision to sell its hotel chain to the Radisson Hotel Group during 1992.

Consolidation, acquisitions, and partnerships

During the early 1990s, SAS unsuccessfully tried to merge itself with KLM, along with Austrian Airlines and Swissair, in a proposed combined entity commonly called Alcazar. However, months of negotiations towards this ambitious merger ultimately collapsed due to multiple unsettled issues; this strategic failure heavily contributed to the departure of Carlzon that same year and his replacement by Jan Reinås. The airline marked its 50th year of operation on 1 August 1996 with the harmonization and name of SAS's parent company to SAS Danmark A/S, SAS Norge ASA and SAS Sverige AB. During May 1997, SAS became a founding member of the global Star Alliance network, joining with airlines such as Air Canada, Lufthansa, Thai Airways International, and United Airlines.

In June 2001, the ownership structure of SAS was changed, with a holding company being created in which the holdings of the governments changed to Sweden (21.4%), Norway (14.3%), and Denmark (14.3%), while the remaining 50 percent of shares were publicly held and traded on the stock market.