Scandinavian airlines

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 intercontinental air traffic of these three Scandinavian countries.^[1] Operations started on 17 September 1946. In 1948 the Swedish flag carrier AB Aerotransport joined SAS and the companies coordinated European operations and finally merged to form the SAS Consortium in 1951. When established, the airline was divided between SAS Danmark (28.6%), SAS Norge (28.6%) and SAS Sverige (42.8%), all owned 50% by private investors and 50% by their governments.^{[citation needed]}

SAS was one of the founding members of the Star Alliance, the livery of which is seen on an Airbus A330-330

The DC-10 was the backbone of the long-haul fleet during the 70's and 80's.In 1954, SAS became the first airline in the world to operate a trans-polar route. It was from Copenhagen to Los Angeles, with intermediate stops in Søndre Strømfjord, Greenland and Winnipeg, Canada, and this polar service became popular with Hollywood celebrities and production people travelling to Europe. The route was a publicity coup for the airline, which became well known as a result. Thanks to a price structure, which allowed free transit to other European destinations, this trans-polar route had gained popularity with US tourists throughout the late 1950s. SAS later operated trans-polar routes to Asia's Far East (Japan) via Greenland and Alaska, since the Soviet Union did not grant SAS the right to fly across Siberia and China was closed to overflights at that time.^{[citation needed]}

In 1957, SAS was the first airline to offer "round the world service over the North Pole" via the North Pole shortcut Copenhagen-Anchorage-Tokyo. SAS entered the jet age in 1959 when its first jet aircraft, the Caravelle, entered service. In 1971, SAS put its first Boeing 747 jumbo jet into service.

An Airbus A300B2-320 at Zurich International Airport in 1982

SAS gradually acquired control of the domestic markets in all three countries by acquiring full or partial control of local airlines, including Braathens and Widerøe in Norway, Linjeflyg and Skyways Express in Sweden and Cimber Air in Denmark. In 1989, SAS acquired 18.4% of Texas Air Corporation, parent company of Continental Airlines, in a bid to form a global alliance. This stake was later sold. During the 1990s, SAS also bought a 20% stake in British Midland along with Lufthansa, which owns 30% (although as of January 2009 LH will own 80% of the carrier). SAS bought 95% of Spanair, the second largest airline in Spain, as well as Air Greenland. There are plans to dispose of all of these holdings^[2] and an agreement to divest more than 80 percent of the holdings in Spanair was signed with a Catalonian group of investors led by Consorci de Turisme de Barcelona and Catalana d'Inciatives in January 2009.

SAS was one of the largest DC-9operators in the world.

The Boeing 767 was the successor of the DC-10 on long-haul routes.

In May 1997, SAS formed the global Star Alliance network with Air Canada, Lufthansa, Thai Airways Internationaland United Airlines. Four years earlier, SAS unsuccessfully attempted to merge with KLM, Austrian, and the now defunct carrier, Swissair, in a project called Alcazar This failure led to the departure the following year of CEO Jan Carlzon, who was credited for the financial turnaround of the company starting in 1981 and who envisioned SAS ownership of multiple airlines worldwide. The ownership structure of SAS was changed in June 2001, 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%) and the remaining 50% publicly held and traded on the stock market. The SAS Group’s average number of employees was 15379 in the first quarter of 2009

In 2004, Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) was divided into four companies :: SAS Scandinavian Airlines Sverige AB, SAS Scandinavian Airlines Danmark AS, SAS Braathens AS and SAS Scandinavian International AS. SAS Braathens was re-branded SAS Scandinavian Airlines Norge AS in 2007

In October 2009 the four companies SAS Scandinavian Airlines Sverige AB, SAS Scandinavian Airlines Danmark AS, SAS Scandinavian Airlines Norge AS and SAS Scandinavian International AS was once again united in to one company, SAS Scandinavian System AB.