SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK, Copenhagen Kastrup) says it expects to commence longhaul A350-900 operations in early 2020. According to its 2QFY19 earnings, as of April 30, 2019, SAS has eight A350-900s on order from Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) of which four are due in FY2020 (November 1, 2019 – October 31, 2020) while the other four are due in FY2021 (November 1, 2020 – October 31, 2021).
In a statement issued June 13, the Nordic carrier said its first A350-900 - SE-RSA - will deliver by the end of the current calendar year. It will then be deployed on crew training flights throughout Scandinavia during December and January following which it will then make its longhaul debut on SAS's Copenhagen Kastrup-Chicago O'Hare route effective January 28, 2020.
The widebody twinjets will be based out of the Danish capital and will be used on SAS routes to Chicago, Beijing, New York JFK, Tokyo Narita, Shanghai Pudong, Hong Kong Int'l, and San Francisco, CA during the first year.
SAS's A350s will be powered by Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-84s and will feature a total of 300 seats of which 40 will be in Business, 32 in Premium Economy, and 228 in Economy.
According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, SAS's widebody fleet currently consists of eight A330-300s and eight A340-300s.