Not all airline systems suit everyone. Certain group of countries needs to have an independent system. This also holds true for Scandinavia. The sas airlines group or the Scandinavian Airlines System basically runs multi-national flights for Scandinavia i.e. Denmark, Sweden and Norway. This is a comparatively younger airline group, coming into being post World War II, as an airline group with 50 % control of the Governments of the three countries and 50 & control to the private investors of the three countries. The sas airlines are a first in many scenarios. It is the first airline belonging to 3 countries equally, as their national airline; it is the first post world war II airline; it is the first airline to go a trans-polar route etc etc. It was also the first airline to use a route as a publicity stunt. The trans-polar route was an unnecessary trans-polar route. The 2 destinations were Copenhagen and the Film City itself, Los Angeles. The stop was in Greenland. This flight was cheaper with a free transit and quite popular amongst the Hollywood stars.
Initially what began as a promotion feat, later became mandatory when the sas airlines began flying on route to east-asia. This happened because both China and Siberia had not allowed their air space to be used. The issue was not pressed either due to the post world war II stress on the nations and very conveniently the trans-polar route was up taken. The route grew quite popular with tourists all over the world.
Funnily, there has been another first with the sas airlines. The sas airline was also the first airline to offer ‘around the world (not in 80 days) but over the north pole! The group knew the potential of the poles and hence re-invented its polar magic and actually succeeded at accomplishing the lost craze.
However sas airlines have had an unlucky hand at mergers. There was a successful merger in the form of star alliance. However the later attempt of merger with KLM backfired badly. This eventually resulted in division of the sas airlines into 4 major groups. In spite of the division however, the sas airlines operate under the sas group.
Although the sas airlines group has had its share of mishaps as well as casualties, it has also been at the receiving end of numerous awards including the best airline of the year as well. There was an unavoidable imminent crash at Gottröra, where the engines had ingested ice from the wings. The flight broke into 3 parts during an exigent landing at a field. However due to the professional maintenance of the pilot, all aboard the flight survived and this was the first, of a pilot receiving decoration by the Danish Queen herself. Again another first!
Over the time, sas airlines has created a niche for its flights in the market, apart from the polar route too, loved by people who travel frequently between Scandinavia and US as well as Asia, specially for those who are looking for flights with minimal touch-downs. There are still quite a few fanatics out there who prefer the sas airlines for the round the world over the north pole route, even though the flight is quite costly with quite a few touch downs as well. In spite of the length of duration of the flight, people do them for an adventurous high. This flight offers quite a few entertainments on board too, including free food and refreshments, unlike other sas airlines, where the food has to be purchased from the cloud shops.
Also, a few people take about 1.5th trip of the ‘around the world’ flight, dropping at their destination and picking up later in order to continue flying with food and movies. The flights don’t allow pets but offer unsolicited children, offering games and other activities to keep them busy. SAS is also looking forward to extending these facilities to all the sas airlines.
