Scandinavian Airlines Ireland Delays Launch
The new Irish based arm of Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) has delayed its launch until December citing delays in delivering their new aircraft. The company will operate nine Airbus A320neos on its Irish Air Operators Certificate (AOC). The first three aircraft will be registered EI-SIA (msn 7897), EI-SIB (msn 7951) and EI-SIC (msn 7979). EI-SIA was noted at the Airbus factory at Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport in early September. SAS Ireland is planning to operate nine AirbusA320neos, five will be based at London Heathrow and the remaining four in Malaga.
“There has been a delay in the delivery in aircraft from Airbus and therefore we have to postpone until the beginning of December,” an SAS spokeswoman told Aviation Daily earlier this week.
SAS President and CEO Rickard Gustafson had previously said that the aim was to start operations from the new Heathrow base from 1st November, followed by Malaga in spring 2018. SAS mainline has 30 A320neos on order.
SAS Ireland is headed up by Paul Schütz who has served as Chief Financial Officer of BWIA West Indies Airways Ltd and Chief Executive of Aer Arann since January 2009 until 2012. He has worked in the airline industry including senior finance and general management roles for over 20 years and also worked for Ryanair, Eirjet, bmi Regional and BA. He has been a Director of daa Plc since July 2012. He is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.