In this 15-minute keynote interview, John Strickland, Director, JLS Consulting and Anko van der Werff, President & CEO of SAS – Scandinavian Airlines discussed the airline’s historical challenges, restructuring, transition to SkyTeam, future network opportunities, and operational success.
The session opened with a summary of the airline’s historical challenges and examined new opportunities presented by the restructuring.
In addition to discussing the seamless shift to SkyTeam and new possibilities of a joint venture, Van der Weff spoke on the airline’s how SAS became Europe’s most punctual airline.
“70 per cent of a passenger’s NPS score is running a smooth operation. We have a Dutch philosopher—who was also a very famous football player—Johan Cruyff. He passed away, and he always said that playing football is simple, but playing football simply is very difficult. And that’s the same with airlines. Running an airline—everybody understands what running an airline is about. The concept of running an airline is very easy, but to do 800 flights a day between Los Angeles, Japan, and wherever, that becomes very different. Different jurisdictions, different weather, and so on. That makes it very complex. We have spent an awful lot of time on it, and a year and a half ago, we were really, call it, bottom quartile or something. Last summer, we were 12th in Europe. In autumn, we were 9th. In spring, we became 6th. In July, we were 2nd. In August, we were number one. And in September, again, number one.”
Watch the full session below.
For more from onsite at World Aviation Festival 2024:
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- Forbes, the Godfathers of AI, and multi-billion dollar airport modernisation
- Keynote Interview with Jozsef Varadi, CEO of Wizz Air
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