Launch of SAS’s non-stop service to London
International connectivity to and from the region is growing, and three new international routes at Luleå Airport will start up in December. After a wait of several years, it is finally time for the launch of Scandinavian Airlines - SAS’s new direct route to London. On December 16, the French tour operator Quartier Libre and the airline Transavia will begin service to Paris, and on Christmas Day itself, Eurowings will launch non-stop service from Luleå to its hub in the German city of Düsseldorf.
On Friday December 9, at 7:05 a.m., the first flight on SAS’s new route to London Heathrow took off, and at 2:45 p.m. the first flight landed in Sweden with excited passengers from the UK. At Luleå Airport, the launch of service was celebrated by rolling out the red carpet, serving free refreshments and wishing all passengers a warm welcome to Sweden with its beautiful winter landscape or bon voyage. Non-stop service to and from London Heathrow will run on Mondays and Fridays until mid-March 2023.
The United Kingdom is a crucial market for both business and leisure travel. Flying non-stop from a major international hub such as London Heathrow means that passengers can take advantage of airlines’ large networks of routes to fly elsewhere in the world, connecting this Swedish region with many more countries. The route is important for connectivity to the Luleå region for international visitors, but also for Swedes flying abroad and for business travellers.
The recovery in air travel continues. Compared to travel in November 2019, Luleå Airport continued to have the strongest growth of Swedavia’s ten airports, and domestic air travel at the airport was almost on a par with its pre-pandemic volume.