SAS Scandinavian Airlines Air Cargo Profile

SAS Cargo is the air freight division of Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), the flag carrier of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. It operates as a wholly owned subsidiary with its main office at Copenhagen Airport (CPH). The business is belly-hold only: rather than running dedicated freighters, SAS Cargo sells and manages the lower-deck cargo capacity of the SAS passenger fleet. This ties its capacity directly to the airline's route network, concentrating long-haul lift on intercontinental widebody services and shorter-haul volume on the extensive intra-Scandinavian and European network.

Scandinavian Airlines was formed in 1946 through the merger of the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish national carriers, and carries the IATA code SK and ICAO code SAS. SAS was a founding member of Star Alliance in 1997, but left after 27 years and joined SkyTeam on 1 September 2024. The alliance switch followed Air France-KLM Group taking a stake in the carrier as SAS emerged from a Chapter 11 restructuring begun in 2022; Air France-KLM has since moved to majority ownership, making the group the corporate parent and aligning SAS Cargo with the SkyTeam Cargo network.

The cargo operation centres on Copenhagen (CPH) as its global hub, supported by Oslo (OSL) and Stockholm-Arlanda (ARN). SAS Cargo reaches roughly 136 destinations across about 31 countries, combining aircraft belly capacity with a road-feeder trucking network and reporting annual volumes on the order of tens of thousands of tonnes. Long-haul flying is led by the fuel-efficient Airbus A350-900 alongside A330-300s. The division holds IATA CEIV Pharma certification for temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical shipments and runs an online booking portal that handles the majority of its bookings, positioning it as a key belly-cargo provider in Northern Europe.