Nordic air war heats up

Scandinavian Airlines, the semi-official air carrier of Sweden, Denmark and Norway, seems to be neither big enough nor flexible enough to resist market incursions by its scrappy competitor, Norwegian. Having taken the local market by storm, Norwegian’s colorful boss, an ex-fighter pilot named Bjørn Kjos, now intends to pick off long-distance stretches, like Oslo-New York, that Scandinavian (a.k.a. SAS) has neglected or overpriced. Analysts see a major threat to SAS despite partial ownership by the three governments. SAS chief Mats Jansson has even begun responding to Kjos’s frequent zingers in the media, including a claim that SAS’s fleet was decrepit. “Kjos seems more like he’s in the communication and entertainment industry than the airlines,” Jansson told DN.no. “Our fleet is up-to-date, and we have no need to buy new planes.”