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 [1] |
| Revenue: | SEK 36.7 billion [2] |
| 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 in Air Greenland, Estonian Air and Skyways Express. As of 2011, SAS Group has 138 aircrafts in operation, 2,528, cabin crew members and 1,304 pilots. The company transported more than 22.9 million passengers to 60 destinations in 2011 and its reported revenue was SEK 36.7 billion. The company is trading on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange and its headquarters is Stockholm Arlanda Airport (ARN), Fifty percent of SAS Group's shares are owned by Swedish (21.4%), Danish (14.3%), and Norwegian (14.3%) governments, while the remaining 50% is owned by different entities.[3]
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. 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 in the event. Domain experts speculated the possibility of the first brand string contention for the .sas TLD given that the acronym has numerous meanings. SAS Institute, a large software company based in North Carolina, was identified as a possible competitor.[4] [5][6]
The speculation proved to be correct, SAS Institute also applied for .sas via Research IP LLC.[7]
History
SAS Group was established after the merger of the national carriers of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden 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 the North Pole. The company joined the Star Alliance Network in 1997. SAS Group is listed on the Stockholm, Copenhagen and Oslo Stock Exchanges under the ticker symbol "SAS". In 2011, the company was recognized as the most punctual airline in Europe for the third consecutive year and launched its 4Excellence Strategy. [8] The SAS Group Timeline of Events is available here
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)
The major shareholders of SAS Group include the following:[9]
- 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%