On Friday, Air France-KLM announced that it will raise its ownership in Scandinavian carrier SAS from its current 20% stake to 60.5%. The price at which the extra shares are purchased from Castlelake and Lind Invest will depend on SAS’s final financial results.
Subject to regulatory approval, the sale is anticipated to be finalised in the second half of 2026. To ensure that the combination doesn’t jeopardise fair competition, the European Commission will likely carefully examine it. There has already been some opposition to airline consolidation from the Commission. Several times, a merger between Ryanair and Aer Lingus was prevented, and IAG gave up on ambitions to acquire Air Europa because they thought regulators wouldn’t approve the deal.
By establishing Copenhagen as our global hub for the region and maintaining robust and strategic operations in both Oslo and Stockholm, we believe this consolidation enhances SAS’ capacity to connect Scandinavia with the world and the world with Scandinavia, as interest in Scandinavia continues to grow on a global scale’, stated Anko van der Werff, president and CEO of SAS.
After their successful restructuring, SAS has delivered impressive performance, and we are confident that the airline’s potential will continue to grow through deeper integration within the Air France-KLM Group,” stated Benjamin Smith, CEO of Air France-KLM. Our clients and all Scandinavians would gain from this operation as it would improve the connection.
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