SAS mulls simplifying Airbus widebody fleet

SAS Scandinavian Airlines plans to make a decision between either the A330 and A350 for future widebody fleet operations, considering technology and network suitability, but the winning type remains to be seen, according to CEO Anko van der Werff. Speaking at the Routes Europe conference in Aarhus, Denmark, he said SAS was working through its fleet plan ahead of its expected exit from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the first week of July. He told delegates that "in the long run, we'll phase out the two widebody [types], but until the end of this decade at least we'll have A330s and A350s. Then you need to make a decision whether it's going to be the one or the other." SAS's widebody fleet currently comprises eight A330-300s and four A350-900s, with two more of the latter on order. In a podcast later, he said: "It's quite logical to think of new tech, the A350 being the newest edition, but the A330ceo does work for us on a lot of our network. We don't know the A330neo very well. We still have a number of widebodies coming in from the A350 orderbook, so for the near foreseeable future, probably at least five years, you'll still be talking about an A330/A350 split fleet."<br/>