SAS and Lufthansa change form of cooperation

On 1 June 2013, SAS and Lufthansa Group are ending the joint venture but will continue their code-share cooperation. No negative impact for the customers is expected.The extensive code-share arrangement between SAS and Lufthansa will remain in force. Both airlines are members of Star Alliance and all customer benefits associated with this, such as lounge access and earning bonus points, will remain.

Lufthansa and SAS have jointly decided to terminate their joint venture on the traffic between Germany and Scandinavia.

The joint venture has been effective since 1995 and has remained unchanged since then. Meanwhile the market environment and the competitive situation have changed. For example, Lufthansa has decided to shift all its European traffic outside Frankfurt and Munich to its subsidiary Germanwings, thus bringing a new business model to the market. Hence the joint venture model in its current form is no longer fully compatible with the commercial interests of the parties.

“SAS and Lufthansa have worked very closely together since 1995, and this cooperation has been beneficial to both parties. We have now decided to end the joint venture element of this in light of the change in market conditions. This will not involve any major changes for our customers, as we will continue to have an extensive code-share arrangement,” says Joakim Landholm, EVP Commercial at SAS.For further information, please contact:
SAS Press office,  +46 8 797 2944SAS is Scandinavia’s leading airline with daily flights to destinations in Europe, USA and Asia. SAS is a member of Star Alliance ™ (http://www.staralliance.com/en/) and, together with 26 partners we offer over 1300 destinations worldwide inmore than 190 countries. For more information, visit www.flysas.com