SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK, Copenhagen Kastrup) has announced it has ordered an additional fifty A320neo aircraft for delivery from Spring 2019 through to 2023.
The carrier said in a statement that the order is split into two parts. The first entails fifteen new-build aircraft, which will deliver from Spring 2019 through to 2021, that have been secured through declarations of intent with lessors. The remaining thirty-five A320neo are being procured directly from Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) via SAS's wholly-owned subsidiary Gorm Asset Management Ltd. with deliveries to run through to 2023. No engine selection has yet been made.
The order also includes options for an additional five A320neo. Moreover, SAS also has the possibility to increase the number of aircraft that can be leased from lessors. The aircraft will be financed through a combination of finance leases, sale and leaseback, and cash flow generated through its own operations.
Given it is already well into an existing order for thirty A320neo, of which seventeen have thus far been delivered, SAS also announced that with the arrival of the new order aircraft, it will now begin to phase out its older fleet of A320ceo (four A319-100s, eleven A320-200s, eight A321-200s) and B737s (ten B737-600s, twenty-eight B737-700s, and twenty-nine B737-800s).
"SAS will further simplify its aircraft fleet into a single-type fleet consisting of Airbus aircraft on both short-, medium- and long-haul routes," it said. "This will lead to increased flexibility, and enable further standardizations and enhancements to efficiency in the production."
