Scandinavian Airlines is to return to London Stansted nearly 15 years after pulling out of the airport to focus on the main Heathrow hub.

The SAS Group carrier had revealed earlier this year that it was reconsidering links to other London airports as it disposed of some of its Heathrow slots.

Scandinavian Airlines says it will operate to Stansted from Gothenburg as part of its newly-disclosed winter programme.

The switch reverses a withdrawal from Stansted initiated in 2001, when SAS said its customers preferred Heathrow because of its proximity to the capital.

Heathrow was also better-served by SAS’s partners in Star Alliance.

SAS Group sold two sets of Heathrow slots earlier in the year. But it says it is reinforcing capacity to London – by 50,000 seats – through deployment of larger aircraft on routes from Copenhagen, Stockholm and Oslo.

Its winter schedule will include new Oslo-Vilnius and Bergen-Warsaw services as well as a Stockholm-Munich route.

SAS will also increase frequencies on several services including its intercontinental Copenhagen-San Francisco link, which will give the carrier a daily connection to the US gateway.

Source: Cirium Dashboard