SAS drops Greenland route

Next April Greenlandair will become the only airline to offer regular jet service between Kangerlussuaq and Copenhagen, Denmark.

SAS has decided to stop flying the route between Kangerlussuaq and Copenhagen, a route the airline has flown since 1954.

As of April 2, 2003, Greenlandair will be the sole airline to fly over the North Atlantic to Denmark.

“We have chosen a long phase-out period in order to give Greenlandair and the Greenlandic society time to adapt,” SAS information officer Troels Rasmussen told the Greenlandic newspaper Atuagagdliutit. “Ever since Greenlandair began flying the same as we do, but an hour earlier, we have run a deficit on the route. The number of passengers have fallen, and we are not able to maintain the route anymore.”

Greenlandair expects to earn money from being the sole operator on the Greenland-Denmark route. Its management says the new monopoly won’t mean higher prices, either.

To handle more passengers, Greenlandair wants to lease an almost-new Airbus A330 with 243 seats that would have 80 seats more than its aging Boeing 757.

Greenlandair (Grønlandsfly) is also getting a new name, Air Greenland, as well as a new logo based on the red and white colours of the Greenlandic flag.