SAS has taken delivery of its first Airbus A330 Enhanced
Yesterday saw SAS become the first European airline to fly the Airbus A330-300 Enhanced. The aircraft was delivered to SAS from Airbus’ factory in Toulouse on Wednesday and after some final tests, the first flight took off from Copenhagen to Chicago yesterday afternoon.
SAS has ordered a total of four Airbus A330 Enhanced to complement the company's existing Airbus A330 aircraft. The next aircraft will be delivered from Airbus in late September and the remaining two will arrive in 2016. It will then take until 2018 before the next long-haul aircraft is delivered - SAS's first Airbus A350. The new Airbus A330 Enhanced houses SAS's new long-haul seats on board with upgraded cabins and fully-flat seats in Business Class. This means that all SAS Airbus A330 aircraft now have the new long-haul seats on board. During its first month the new aircraft will be deployed on the Copenhagen-Chicago route, followed by routes from Stockholm to Hong Kong and Chicago. “We are pleased to welcome our travellers on board our new A330-300 Enhanced. We are making significant investments in our fleet while opening new routes, which means that we have the strongest offer to the US and Asia from Scandinavia. Additionally, we reduce our fuel consumption as the new aircraft are delivered, which will help reduce our fuel emissions,” says
Rickard Gustafson
, President and CEO of SAS. The Airbus A330 Enhanced also involves some technical differences compared to the older Airbus A330 aircraft. Among other features, the aircraft has a longer range, 10,400 kilometres compared to 9600 kilometres on the previous aircraft, and 2 percent lower fuel consumption.
