SAS is celebrating its 80th anniversary and is marking the anniversary with special flights from Stockholm, Copenhagen and Oslo to New York. It was also to New York that SAS's first flight took place on September 17, 1946 – a journey that then took 25 hours.
The first SAS flight departed from Bromma in Stockholm on September 17, 1946. The aircraft, a DC-4 named Dan Viking, had 28 passengers on board and was flying to LaGuardia in New York.
The trip went via Copenhagen, Prestwick in Scotland and Gander in Canada and took a total of 25 hours.
Eighty years later, SAS marks the anniversary with flights to New York from all three Scandinavian capitals. Today's direct flights across the Atlantic take just under eight hours.
“Celebrating 80 years with SAS is about honoring where we come from while keeping our focus on the future. SAS was founded on a distinctly Scandinavian idea that by collaborating across borders, we could achieve more and bring our region closer to the world,” says SAS CEO Anko van der Werff.
From DC-4 to polar routes and jet aircraft
SAS was founded in 1946 and New York became one of the first long-haul destinations.
In the 1950s, the company began using polar routes for long-haul flights, which shortened travel times between continents. In the 1960s, the transition to jet aircraft followed, and later the Boeing 747 was introduced into the fleet.
In the 1990s, SAS co-founded Star Alliance and launched the EuroBonus bonus program.
Investing in new aircraft
The anniversary comes at the same time as SAS is carrying out a major fleet renewal.
Over the past year, the airline has presented plans for up to 40 new long-haul aircraft from Airbus and 55 Embraer E195-E2s for regional traffic.
Together with the ongoing renewal with the Airbus A320neo, SAS describes the investments as the company's largest fleet modernization in several decades.
Anniversary celebration in New York
On September 18, SAS will also arrange an anniversary reception in New York.
The event is being held together with Scandinavian diplomatic representations in New York and Washington and, according to SAS, brings together participants from business, diplomacy, culture and the aviation industry, among other things.
The celebration takes place 80 years after Dan Viking SAS carried out its first flight between Stockholm and New York.
