SAS and Apollo are enhancing their strategic partnership by signing a new three-year agreement valued at 4.5 billion SEK (US$420 million). This agreement designates SAS as Apollo’s primary charter operations partner in Scandinavia from the summer of 2025 through the summer of 2027.
In the spring of 2021, SAS and Apollo entered into a record-sized agreement for charter operations extending until 2024. The new agreement now signed ensures SAS will transport Apollo’s customers to and from 15 locations in Sweden, Denmark and Norway to 24 destinations across Europe. Apollo continues to be SAS’ largest partner in the charter sector.
Furthermore, SAS and Apollo will inaugurate direct flights connecting Copenhagen and Banjul, Gambia, starting in November 2024. These flights will be operated by Airbus A321LR aircraft. SAS will manage the route from Copenhagen to Banjul for approximately five months, offering convenient connections from Stockholm, Oslo and Helsinki. Notably, the A321LR is the same aircraft model that SAS uses for some of its long-haul flights, such as to New York, offering three cabins: Business, Plus, and Go.
“We look forward to providing our shared customers a unique flying experience over the next three years as they board our SAS aircraft from Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The agreement with Apollo is an important part of our strategy to seasonally adjust our flight capacity. The new agreement with Apollo reaffirms SAS’s position as a valued partner in the charter market,” says Michael Erixon, Global Sales Director at SAS.
“At Apollo, we hold a holistic view on the customer experience when choosing our partners. We have a long-standing partnership with SAS, which is known for its modern fleet of fuel-efficient aircraft, and we are very pleased to continue offering our customers the opportunity to fly with SAS as part of their holiday experience. We are especially excited that Apollo is the first tour operator in Scandinavia to offer SAS’s well-appreciated long-haul product as part of our new venture for travel from Scandinavia to Gambia,” says Tobias Jönsson, CEO of Apollo.
