SAS has sold two pairs of slots at Heathrow for USD 75 million to an undisclosed buyer.
Currently SAS is the sixth largest airline operating at London Heathrow measured in number of departures and before this transaction had 19 daily slot-pairs at London Heathrow, which now will be reduced to 17 daily slot-pairs.
SAS can continue to use these two slot-pairs for up to three years.
SAS operates from London Heathrow to Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm and Stavanger. Even after the transaction, SAS will continue to offer a strong and comprehensive network between Scandinavia and London Heathrow. The intention is to maintain the seat capacity to/from London Heathrow through the use of larger aircraft on remaining departures.
In February 2015, SAS sold a slot-pair at Heathrow to Turkish Airlines for $22 million and another slot-pair to an undisclosed ‘major international air carrier‘ for $60 million.
N.B. Image credit: sasgroup.net
