The leading airlines in the region are Scandinavian Airlines, Norwegian Air Shuttle, and Icelandair, which belongs to the Icelandair Group. All these companies are based in Scandinavia. Other minor airlines are the Norwegian Widerøe, Sweden's Novair, TUIfly Nordic, and the Denmark-based Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia. Atlantic Airways, based on the Faroe Islands, and Air Greenland also operate in the region. The Icelandic low-cost carrier WOW air ceased its operation in March 2019. A new low-cost airline operating under the name Play airlines was established in Iceland in June 2019 and began operations in 2021.
Scandinavian Airlines
The perhaps best-known airline in Scandinavia is Scandinavian Airlines, widely referred to as SAS. The Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian governments each hold major shares in the company, which has its headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden. The main hubs of Scandinavian Airlines are the airports of Stockholm-Arlanda, Copenhagen-Kastrup, and Oslo-Gardermoen. The airline operates domestic flights within Sweden, Denmark, and Norway and international flights within Europe to North America, the Middle East, and Asia.Scandinavian Airlines is a member of Star Alliance, one of the world's largest global airline alliances. With its about 500 daily departures, SAS served more than 100 destinations around the globe in 2022. In that period, a fleet of 134 aircraft transported almost 18 million passengers. And with a market share of 25 percent, SAS is one of the leading airlines operating flights to, from, and within Scandinavia. Passenger transportation accounted for the greatest share of SAS's revenue, which amounted to approximately 31.8 billion Swedish kronor in 2022.
Norwegian Air Shuttle
As the name indicates, Norwegian is a Norway-based low-cost airline and one of the most profitable airlines in the Nordics. The headquarters are located in Fornebu, Norway. In addition to Norway, the airline has several operating bases in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the United Kingdom, Spain, Thailand, the United States, Italy, and the French Caribbean.More than 85 destinations are served by Norwegian on around 300 routes around the globe. Most of the company's revenue is generated by international flights to destinations in Europe, Northern Africa, the Middle East, Thailand, the Caribbean, and the United States. Those destinations are reached with the airlines' 51 aircraft.
Icelandair Group
The Icelandair Group serves connections within the country and to North America and continental Europe. With its central location, Iceland is a convenient hub for flights between Europe and North America, turning Iceland and Kevlavik International Airport into a popular stopover destinations. In 2021, the Icelandair Group employed roughly 2,100 full-time employees, of which about 1,900 were employees of the subsidiary airline Icelandair. The revenue of the Icelandair Group is mainly generated by passenger transportation, with a revenue of 454 million U.S. dollars reported in 2021. Air cargo contributed roughly 87 million U.S. dollars in revenue.In 2021, a total of 1.5 million passengers, of which roughly one-quarter were transfer passengers, were traveling on international flights between Europe and North America. Those international flights had a load factor of 65.2 percent. The Icelandair Group is also responsible for domestic and regional flights, including flights within Iceland, to Greenland, and to Scotland with aircraft from Icelandair and Air Iceland. Roughly 225 thousand passengers used the Group's airlines to travel on regional flights with a load factor of approximately 70.4 percent.Passenger air transportation, air cargo, and the tourism business in Iceland generated nearly 600 million U.S. dollars in revenue in 2021.