Scandinavian Airlines System Group

Type:	Public Company
Industry:	Aviation
Founded:	1946
Headquarters:	Stockholm Arlanda Airport Sigtuna Municipality
Country:	Sweden
Employees:	15,142 average as of 2011
Revenue:	SEK 36.7 billion
Website:	www.flysas.com
Facebook:	SAS
LinkedIn:	SAS (Scandinavian Airlines)
Twitter:	@SAS
Key People
Rickard Gustafson, CEO Fritz H. Schur, Chairman

Scandinavian Airlines System Group (SAS Group) is the largest aviation company in Scandinavia. The company owns Scandinavian Airlines, which serves as the flag carrier for Norway, Sweden and Denmark, Blue1 and Widerøe, SAS Business Opportunities, SAS Cargo Group, SAS Ground Services and SAS Technical Services. SAS Group also holds minority interest of Air Greenland, Estonian Air and Skyways Express. As of 2011, SAS Group has 138 air crafts in operation, 2,528, cabin crews and 1,304 pilots. The company transported more than 22.9 million passengers in 60 destinations in 2011 and its reported revenue was SEK 36.7 billion. The company is trading at the Copenhagen Stock Exchange and its headquarters is located at Stockholm Arlanda Airport (ARN) in Sigtuna Municipality, Sweden. Fifty percent of SAS Group's shares is owned by Swedish (21.4%), Danish (14.3%)and Norwegian (14.3%) governments while the remaining 50% is owned by different entities.

History

SAS Group was established after the merger of the national flag carriers of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, the Danish Aviation Company A/S (DDL), the Norwegian Aviation Company A/S (DNL) and the Swedish Inter Continental Air AB (SILA) in 1946. The current SAS Group was officially created in 1951. In 1957, SAS was the first airline company to offer the first around the world flight, Copenhagen-Anchorage-Tokyo via North Pole. The company joined the Star Alliance Network in 1997. SAS Group was listed in the Stockholm, Copenhagen and Oslo Stock Exchanges under the ticker symbol "SAS" In 2003, SAS Group established the SAS Scandinavian Airlines Denmark, Scandinavian Airlines SAS Sweden, SAS Braathens and SAS Scandinavian Airlines International as independent business units. In 2011, the company was recognized as the most punctual airline in Europe for the third consecutive year and launched its 4Excellence Strategy. The SAS Group Timeline of Events is available here

Application for .sas gTLD

Linn Drivdal Mellbye, conference organizer for CloudNames, a company based in Norway engaged in providing gTLD application consultancy services and technical registry solutions tweeted that SAS Group is interested in applying for the .sas Brand gTLD with ICANN's New gTLD Program. The company also confirmed its attendance to the scheduled Top Level Conference in London to explain its decision and strategy. However, the company cancelled its participation to the event. Domain experts speculated the possibility of a first brand string contention on the .sas TLD because the abbreviation represents numerous meanings. SAS Institute, a large software company based in North Carolina may also apply for the string.

Subsidiary Companies

SAS Group owns the following subsidiary companies:

• Scandinavian Airlines
• Widerøe
• Blue1
• SAS Cargo Group
• SAS Ground Handling
• SAS Technical Services
• Air Greenland (37.5% ownership)
• Estonian Air (2.66% ownership)

Major Shareholders

The major shareholders of SAS Group include the following:

• Swedish Government - 21.4%
• Danish Government - 14.3%
• Norwegian Government- 14.3%
• Knut and Alice Wallenbergs Foundation - 7.6 %
• A. H. Värdepapper AB - 1.4%
• Forsakringsaktiebolaget, Avanza Pension- 1.4 %
• Unionen - 1.4%
• Danmarks Nationalbank - 1.4%

Board of Directors

• Fritz H. Schur, Chairman of the Board
• Jacob Wallenberg, Vice Chairman
• Dag Mejdell, Second Vice Chairman
• Monica Caneman, Board Member
• Jens Erik Christensen, Board Member
• Gry Mølleskog, Board Member
• Timo Peltola, Board Member
• Elisabeth Goffeng, Board Member
• Ulla Gröntvedt, Board Member
• Anna-Lena Gustafsson, Board Member
• Rickard Gustafson, President and CEO

Top-Level Domain