Snowflake was a low-cost airline that operated out of Stockholm, Sweden, and Copenhagen, Denmark between 30 March 2003 and 30 October 2004. Owned by the SAS Group, it was organized as a business unit within Scandinavian Airlines, operating as a virtual airline using their crew and aircraft. Snowflake served a total 28 destinations from its bases at Stockholm Arlanda Airport and Copenhagen Airport.
The concept was launched using four Boeing 737-800 aircraft. It mainly served Mediterranean holiday destinations, as well as destinations popular with expatriates. From March 2004 two 737 aircraft were replaced with two McDonnell Douglas MD-82s. The airline underestimated its costs and achieved an insufficient load factor, thus making services unprofitable. After operations ended, SAS continued to use Snowflake as a brand for discounted tickets to European destinations.
History
In 2003 SAS underwent a major restructuring program, which largely focused on reducing unit costs. As part of the program, the company's management, in cooperation with McKinsey & Company devised a scheme to better target the leisure market. The models of Ryanair and SAS' partner airline Lufthansa's low-cost subsidiary Germanwings were examined. SAS had just bought its main Norwegian competitor, Braathens, and had also significantly reduced Swedish domestic competition through the purchase of Linjeflyg. The airline was worried about new entrants in these markets, in particular about Ryanair and EasyJet.
The SAS Group announced plans for the airline on 10 December 2002, at the time giving it the provisional name Scandinavian Light. The company stated that they aimed to create a low-cost airline which would focus on the leisure holiday market and on Mediterranean destinations. SAS hoped that the new airline would target a different market than Scandinavian Airlines and that the latter could instead focus on the business. A challenge for the company was at the time that it had overcapacity after a recent drop in passenger numbers.
The Snowflake brand was announced on 19 March 2003 and services commenced on 30 March. Four Boeing 737-800 were transferred to the new airline and painted in a new livery. Two were stationed at Stockholm Arlanda Airport and two at Copenhagen Airport. SAS chose not to launch the service in Norway. It considered the newly formed SAS Braathens to be a lost-cost carrier and did not see the need for differentiation in the Norwegian market. Ticket prices started at 279 Swedish krona (SEK) and 295 Danish kroner (DKK) plus taxes. About ten seats per departure were sold at that price.
The first services were from Stockholm to Alicante, Athens, Barcelona, Bologna, Budapest, Dublin, Istanbul, Málaga, Nice, Prague and Rome. From Copenhagen the airline's first flights were to Alicante, Athens, Bologna, Lisbon, Málaga, Palma de Mallorca, Pristina and Sarajevo. The latter two were particularly aimed at expatriates, rather than tourists. By May the airline had achieved a load factor of seventy percent, increasing to eighty-two percent by September. Snowflake then announced three new destinations from Stockholm from the start of the winter program in October: Lyon, Beograd and Beirut. The latter two were mainly aimed at expatriates. A new fare scheme was introduced from 1 October, whereby there were eight price levels, ranging from €58 to €228. It also started offering discounted booking fees for tickets bought online. In November Snowflake announced that it would end services to Dublin and Barcelona, citing low profitability. Scandinavian Airlines started to serving Dublin itself.
Snowflake was hit by a strike within the SAS Group starting on 1 February 2004 amongst ground handlers. From February Snowflake introduced services from Stockholm to Bilbao and Olbia. Starting with the 2004 summer schedule, commencing 28 March, SAS introduced additional services. From Copenhagen the airline started flights to Ankara, Beirut, Skopje, Split and Valletta. From Stockholm services were introduced to Ankara, Inverness, Lisbon, Palma de Mallorca, Split, Skope and Valletta. At the same time two more aircraft, 156-seat McDonnell Douglas MD-82s, were introduced to the Snowflake fleet.