SAS flight compensation: delayed or cancelled

Did you experience a disruption on your flight with SAS? Select the relevant section below to learn about your rights in the event of a delay, cancellation, denied boarding, or missed connection.

SAS counts as an EU/EEA airline, so these rules can apply both to flights departing the EU/EEA and to flights into the EU/EEA that SAS operates. The route and the actual operating carrier always decide a specific case.

SAS is based primarily at Copenhagen, Stockholm and Oslo; its IATA code is SK. Which rules apply is always decided by the specific route and the operating carrier, wherever the flight begins.

Of the example routes between UK airports and SAS's bases at Copenhagen Kastrup, Stockholm Arlanda and Oslo Gardermoen, the longest is Stockholm–Cardiff at 1,611 km and the shortest is Copenhagen–Birmingham at 1,002 km. Distance decides the level set out in Article 7: 15 of the routes fall at €250 and 3 of the routes fall at €400. The amounts are per passenger and assume the other conditions are met. The routes are distance examples to illustrate the levels. They do not mean that SAS operates them.

Routes connecting SAS's bases at Copenhagen Kastrup, Stockholm Arlanda and Oslo Gardermoen with UK airports are shown in the direction in which the flight departs from the EU/EEA, because EU261 can apply to such flights whichever airline operates them. Flights into the EU/EEA operated by an EU/EEA airline are also covered by EU261, while flights departing the UK may instead fall under UK261, with amounts in pounds; see ‘How EU261 applies to SAS’ below.

The €250 level applies to 15 of the routes, among them Stockholm–London Gatwick (1,475 km) and Stockholm–London Heathrow (1,462 km). The €400 level applies to 3 of the routes, among them Stockholm–Cardiff (1,611 km) and Stockholm–Bristol (1,581 km).

As a Community (EU/EEA) air carrier, flights operated by SAS are normally covered by Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 both when departing from an airport in the EU/EEA and when arriving in the EU/EEA from a third country – the airline's own passenger rights page confirms this scope. Whether any individual flight is covered is nonetheless always determined by the route and by which carrier actually operates the flight; responsibility rests with the operating air carrier, and not automatically with SAS as the marketing carrier.

The FAA's official designator register (Order JO 7340.2, Chapter 3) lists, alongside the main company (SAS/Scandinavian Airlines System, Sweden), the SAS-affiliated carriers "Scandinavian Airlines Ireland Limited DBA SAS Connect" (designator SZS, Ireland) and "SAS Link AB" (designator SVS, Sweden) as separate operators with codes of their own. A flight marketed under the SK code may therefore be operated by a legal entity other than the consortium; SAS's own Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 page stresses that it is the operating air carrier that is responsible for the rights ("The airline on whose flight the disruption occurs is responsible for granting your rights").