SAS strengthens its position in Finland

2012-10-18 — /travelprnews.com/ — From November 1, SAS will be taking over responsibility for commercial operations in Finland. This is taking place in line with SAS’s 4Excellence strategy and strengthens SAS’s position on the Finnish market. Finnish subsidiary Blue1 is being converted to a production company, with the primary task of delivering operational flight services to meet SAS’s route network needs.

“Finland is our fourth Nordic home market and we have been restructuring our route network in Finland since the beginning of the year. We now fly nonstop between several regions inFinlandandScandinavia, as a complement to the worldwide route network of SAS and the Star Alliance. We are now using the SAS brand to demonstrate our strong offering and our unique customer benefits on the Finnish market as well,” says Joakim Landholm, Executive Vice President Commercial at SAS.

“As a production company, Blue1 will be focusing on its operational strengths and continuing to operate its current routes for SAS. Our punctuality is the best in Europe and our focus on high-class service is greater than ever,” says Janne Hattula, Managing Director & COO of Blue1 since July 2012.

SAS is Scandinavia’s leading airline and was named Europe’s most punctual airline for the third year in a row in 2011. The SAS Group carried 27.2 million passengers to 128 different destinations in 2011.

For more information, please contact:

Elisabeth Manzi, Director Media Relations SAS, +46 70 997 4893 or

SAS press duty telephone on +46 8 797 2944

Janne Hattula, CEO Blue1, +358 050-444 0607

SAS discloses this information pursuant to the Swedish Securities Market Act and/or the Swedish Financial Instruments Trading Act. The information was provided for publication on October 17, 2012 at 1:15 p.m.

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