SAS To Serve Partner Korean Air’s Seoul Incheon Hub

David Casey November 28, 2024

SAS A350 — SAS will deploy an A350 on the Seoul route.

Credit: Rob Finlayson

Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) will launch its first regular nonstop service between Scandinavia and South Korea next summer, introducing a route to Seoul, the home hub of its new SkyTeam alliance partner Korean Air.

Starting on Sept. 12, 2025, SAS will commence operations between Copenhagen Airport and Seoul Incheon International Airport using the Airbus A350. Flights will be offered four times per week during the summer months, reducing to 3X-weekly during the winter season.

The airline says the route will expand its network reach in Asia, and “cater to the growing demand among travelers from Korea to visit Scandinavia, while providing connections through the SAS network to the rest of Europe.” SAS adds that flights are scheduled with evening departures, optimizing connectivity within Europe.

The network addition comes less than three months after SAS left Star Alliance to join SkyTeam—one of the conditions of a broader restructuring that has seen Air France-KLM take a 19.9% stake in the airline.

Since the move, SAS has already announced a new route to Seattle from next May, marking the carrier's return to the Washington air gateway after more than 15 years. From there, it will be able to access feed from SkyTeam partner Delta Air Lines’ extensive network.

Additionally, the Scandinavian carrier opened a route to Delta's home hub Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in June, which operated daily during the summer and has five roundtrips per week during the winter.

According to OAG Schedules Analyser data, SAS will become the sole operator of flights between Denmark and South Korea once the Seoul service begins. The only other service from the Nordics is Finnair’s daily A350-900 operations between Helsinki and Seoul.

Sabre Market Intelligence figures for 2023 show that 77% of passengers traveling from Helsinki to Seoul began their journey at points on Finnair’s network behind Helsinki. Similarly, SAS will target connecting passengers through Copenhagen for its new route.