SAS named favorite airline by US LGBT travelers
Scandinavian Airlines was named Favorite airline at the EDGE Awards after 70,000 online votes had been cast. The annual competition features a number of categories within travel, lifestyle and entertainment, and is organized by one of the leading LGBT media houses in the US, Edge Media.
SAS edged out other LGBT-friendly airlines such as Air New Zealand, American Airlines, JetBlue, LAN Airlines and Virgin America/Virgin Atlantic to win the coveted title as Favorite airline. In 2010, SAS launched what became one of that year’s most successful global media campaigns, Love is in the air, which concluded with the world’s first gay and lesbian weddings in the air on a flight between Stockholm and New York. Late last year, SAS created a gay video version of its popular SAS Crew Guide concept featuring Anton Hysén, the young Swedish footballer player who came out last year and currently the favorite to win “Dancing with the Stars” in Sweden.
“This is a major honor for SAS. In less than two years we have gone from being more or less invisible in the global LGBT travel market, an extremely loyal customer group with high spending on travel, to now be perceived as one of the world’s most LGBT-friendly airlines. To be named Favorite airline by LGBT travelers in the US in competition with other major global airlines that have been targeting the LGBT travel market for decades show that our commitment is timely and highly appreciated,” says Anders Lindström, PR Director, SAS.
SAS has won several awards for its focus on LGBT travelers in the last year and a half, including a Flightglobal Webbies Awards for Online Campaign of the Year and named Innovator of the Year by IGLTA (International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association), as well as being short-listed for Sweden’s PR of the Year Award 2011. For more information on SAS’ LGBT focus, please visit www.flysas.com/gay.
Besides SAS, Stockholm also won an EDGE Awards as Favorite LGBT-friendly city. Stockholm has worked actively to position itself as an LGBT-friendly destination since 2005, when the Stockholm Gay and Lesbian Network, of which SAS is a member, was founded. SAS also partners with VisitSweden in the US, which promotes Sweden as a leading LGBT destination.
For all EDGE Awards 2011 winners, please go to http://www.edgeonthenet.com/awards.For more information, please contact:
Anders Lindström, PR Director
+46 70 997 3394
anders.lindstrom@sas.se