[Anonymous]

[Tramor01]

I received this from SAS earlier today……… It looks like an all business service. Must be some demand I guess with all the oil companies working out of there?

Starting from 20 August SAS is launching a nonstop service between Stavanger and Houston, with excellent connections from Aberdeen and London. The route will be operated by a business version of the Boeing 737-700 and will have a SAS Long Haul Business Class concept on board, with just 44 comfortable business seats.

[Senator]

The Norway to Houston market was by far the number one request from businesses in Norway. Over 75% of demand is business related.

I have seen some of the slides from the press event, and the demand SVG to IAH is 70,000 seats per year (one direction). If SAS has 85% cabin factor on the route, they will have less than 17% market share on the route I calculated earlier.

Our excellent Travel Forum http://www.businessclass.se was present at the Press Event, and in this post you can see the slides from SAS:

http://www.businessclass.se/forum/sas-group-eurobonus/16729-sensationell-flyglinje-sas-oeppnar-oljelinje-stavanger-houston-8.html#post226641

[Tom Otley]

… and here’s the release

SAS launches service between Stavanger, Norway and Houston, Texas
March 31, 2014 –

SAS is launching services between Stavanger and Houston to start on August 20. This fulfils the wishes of leading players in the oil and gas industry for better connections between Norway, the rest of Scandinavia and Houston, Texas.

“The route we have established is a tailored product for a defined market with particular travel needs,” said Rickard Gustafson, president and CEO of SAS.

The route will be operated by a business version of the Boeing 737-700 and will have an SAS long-haul Business class concept on board, with just 44 comfortable business seats, along with a modern in-flight entertainment system and full-service meals.

“The favorable timetable provides excellent connections throughout Scandinavia in both directions, while Houston is a hub for connections to the south and west such as Mexico, Los Angeles, Dallas and Phoenix with the Star Alliance,” said Gustafson.

SAS will depart from Houston to Stavanger on Sunday-Friday at 9:35 pm, arriving the next day in Stavanger at 2:20 pm. Departures from Stavanger will be Sunday-Friday at 4pm, arriving in Houston at 7:40 pm same day. SAS will be the only airline with non-stop service between Scandinavia and Houston.

SAS has entered into a “wet lease” agreement with the company PrivatAir, which furbishes this special version of the Boeing 737-700. The aircraft will carry SAS’s distinctive colors and logo.

The route will launch on August 20, just ahead of the major oil exhibition in Stavanger, Offshore Northern Seas (ONS). Tickets for route, which will operate daily except Saturdays, go on sale on April 29.

“North America is an important and growing market for SAS”, said Stefan Larsson, general manager North America, as evidenced by several recent activities:

Launch of our Copenhagen–San Francisco route. It will operate daily during the upcoming summer program

Launch of twice daily operation between Newark and Copenhagen Monday through Friday, again during the summer program.

Newark lounge refresh

New attractive EuroBonus program starting on April 1

Orders for new intercontinental aircraft. A330 Enhanced will enter the fleet in 2015-2016 and A350 will enter service starting 2018.

Starting towards the end of this year, our existing fleet will be refurbished, with completely new cabin interiors, including flatbeds in SAS Business, and new entertainment systems.

Currently, SAS operates non-stop service from New York Newark to Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm, from Chicago to Copenhagen and Stockholm and from Washington DC and San Francisco to Copenhagen. From its hubs at Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm, SAS serves cities throughout Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and the rest of Europe. On these non-stop transatlantic flights, SAS offers wide-body Airbus A330 and A340 aircraft with a choice of service class between SAS Business, SAS Plus (premium Economy) or SAS Go (Economy), audio/video entertainment at every seat and EuroBonus frequent flyer points. SAS ranks among the world’s top 5 most punctual airlines according to flightstats.com. As part of Star Alliance, passengers can earn points with EuroBonus or any Star Alliance frequent flyer program.

[Author]

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