Air France-KLM CEO Ben Smith

"We have an option in two years to take a much larger stake."
Air France-KLM CEO Ben Smith discusses a major investment in Scandinavian Airlines, better known as SAS.

[@jrs89]

Great interview, but audio is weak. I can barely hear Ben. Consider compressing and leveling the audio before uploading.

[@LMays-cu2hp]

Thank you for sharing this Aviation news.

[@erik_griswold]

Incredibly smart move, especially given SkyTeam’s relatively poor coverage in Europe as compared to Star Alliance and OneWorld. Also gives AirFrance-KLM the ability to expand the hub at Stockholm (and maybe Copenhagen, it has some capacity issues?) which is important given the limits being imposed on Schiphol. It will also be interesting what happens in Oslo since SAS was no longer owned by the Norwegian State before the chapter 11 filing.

[@kaisfeigenblum2943]

Poor coverage in Europe ????

[@zeddeka]

Bizarre statement. Skyteam has some of the very best coverage in Europe. KLM in particular has excellent coverage of secondary airports throughout Europe that many other airlines simply don't fly to. Taking the UK as just one example, KLM serves a number of UK airports that BA does not.

[@erik_griswold]

@@zeddeka SkyTeam members in Europe: Air France KLM Czech Airlines (Down to 2 aircraft in fleet) Air Europa (Spain) TAROM (Romania) Virgin Atlantic (no service to the Continent) ITA (49% owned by Star Alliance founder Lufthansa) Aeroflot (Sanctioned and suspended from SkyTeam) Compare this to the European members of Star Alliance and OneWorld

[@jordankaramalakov6199]

Only to mention that Air Europa and ITA are under way to new families, Tarom is under tough pressure from Wizz and needs a lot of support. In reality this list shall be much shorter...

[@ljacobs357]

The last time I checked, KLM flies everywhere in Europe and the UK.

[@17addidas]

Remains to be seen which HUB remains . ARN or CPH ??? Perhaps for Asia ARN . for the Americas CPH

[@miksta8821]

This is great for SAS. After decades of political leveraging(I know Denmark still retains an ownership) and being kept out of the Star Alliance JV, SAS might finally have the opportunity to soar again like it did in the past. Perhaps not as high but at least better than where it is now. Im hoping for an improved product in Economy. Their business class is great and Premium economy is pretty good but everything else needs improvement.

[@samsabruskongen]

It's terrible for the customers. As soon as the news hit the number of earned Eurobonus milage points to spend on flights instead of cash went through the roof. It's basically impossible to use your accrued milage points. I loathe SkyTeam with a passion. Guess I'll have to try and use Luftwaffe from now on.