With a lot fanfare, a turret salute from SEA airport firefighters, and loads of pastries, SAS Scandinavian Airways resumed it’s Copenhagen to Seattle service after a sixteen-year hiatus utilizing Airbus A350s on the route.
SAS has a protracted historical past in Seattle, having inaugurated service to Europe again in 1966, changing into the primary service to instantly serve the Pacific Northwest from the Continent. The Port of Seattle had a publication named the “reporter,” which ran a three-page cowl article concerning the new service within the October 1, 1966 problem.
That service ran from 1966 to 2009, when it stopped attributable to a downturn in passenger visitors as a result of world recession.
Subsequently, the Could 21, 2025 return was one thing of a triumph for the airline. The occasion felt buoyant, like a real celebration.
Seattle is SAS’ eleventh vacation spot in North America, boosting Copenhagen Airport’s position as a hub for transatlantic journey. The route shall be operated utilizing an Airbus A350. From CPH, SAS provides connections to 39 European cities, together with Berlin, Zurich, Milan, and Helsinki.
On the way in which out to the ramp at SEA to {photograph} the primary flight’s arrival, I sat subsequent to an SAS advertising individual within the van. I made a joke concerning the inaugural departure, saying they seldom depart on time due to the festivites. “Oh, it will depart on time,” she mentioned, with northern-European sternness, reminding me that SAS persistently wins awards for being probably the most on-time airline.
So, in fact I regarded it up. In 2025, SAS was named Europe’s most punctual airline and second on the earth (Saudia positioned first) by Cirium aviation analytics, with an on-time efficiency of 91.92 p.c.
The truth is, the inaugural arrival was early, so we missed having the ability to {photograph} the touchdown, however we did get to get pleasure from an intensive soaking from the water-cannon salute close to the gate.
At SEA, the winds development from both the southwest or north. This explicit day, it shifted out of the west, giving everybody on the ramp a superb dousing from the water cannons. My cameras wanted a shower anyway, and have been none the more severe for the expertise.
“Seattle is greater than only a new vacation spot for us. It’s a return to a metropolis with historic ties to Scandinavia and rising significance for enterprise and tourism. We’re proud to reopen this connection and supply our clients even better attain throughout the Atlantic,” mentioned SAS President & CEO Anko van der Werff.
The Seattle route is a part of SAS’ wider community enlargement, which additionally contains new locations together with Nuuk, Greenland, and Seoul, South Korea, each set to start in 2025.
The route shall be flown 5 occasions per week year-round, with CPH-SEA flying as SK937, and SEA-CPH as SK938.
It’s nice to see one other European airline at SEA, and the brand new service will present much more choices for vacationers from the Pacific Northwest.
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