[19] The airline was founded on 1 August 1946, when Svensk Interkontinental Lufttrafik AB (an airline owned by the Swedish Wallenberg family), Det Danske Luftfartselskab A/S, and Det Norske Luftfartselskap AS (the flag carriers of Denmark and Norway) formed a partnership to handle the combined air traffic of the three Scandinavian countries.

[22] Within a half-year, SAS set a new record for carrying the heaviest single piece of air cargo across the Atlantic on a scheduled passenger airliner, by shipping a 1,400-pound electrical panel from New York to the Sandvik company in Sweden.

The service proved relatively popular with Hollywood celebrities and members of the film industry, and the route turned out to be a publicity coup for SAS.

Thanks to a tariff structure that allowed free transit to other European destinations via Copenhagen, this trans-polar route gained increasing popularity with American tourists throughout the 1950s.

[3] In 1957, SAS was the first airline to offer around-the-world service over the North Pole via a second polar route served by Douglas DC-7Cs flying from Copenhagen to Tokyo via Anchorage International Airport in Alaska.

[22] The flight via Alaska was a compromise solution since the Soviet Union would not allow SAS, among other air carriers, to fly across Siberia between Europe and Japan, and Chinese airspace was also closed.

[3] In 1959, SAS entered the jet age, having procured a number of French-built Sud Aviation Caravelles as the company's first jetliner.

[citation needed] In addition to modern airliners, SAS also adopted innovative operating practices and systems to improve the customer experience.

The consortium later incorporated UTA and was renamed into KSSU to jointly acquire and maintain McDonnell Douglas DC-10 widebody trijets.

During 1989, SAS acquired 18.4% of the Texas Air Corporation, the parent company of Continental Airlines, in a bid to form a global alliance.

[citation needed] During the early 1990s, SAS unsuccessfully tried to merge itself with KLM, along with Austrian Airlines and Swissair, in a proposed combined entity commonly called Alcazar.

[28][29] However, months of negotiations towards this ambitious merger ultimately collapsed due to multiple unsettled issues; this strategic failure heavily contributed to the departure of Carlzon that same year and his replacement by Jan Reinås.

[citation needed] With the growth of budget airlines and decreasing fares in Scandinavia, the business experienced financial hardship.

In the first step of which, the business sold its stakes in other companies, such as British Midland International, Spanair, and airBaltic, and began to restructure its operations.

[37] In November 2012, the company came under heavy pressure from its owners and banks to implement even heavier cost-cutting measures as a condition for continued financial support.

Negotiations with the respective trade unions took place for more than a week and exceeded the original deadline; in the end, an agreement was reached between SAS and the trade unions that would increase the work time, cutting employee's salaries by between 12 and 20 percent, along with reductions to the pension and retirement plans; these measures were aimed at keeping the airline as an operating concern.

[38] SAS sought to replace its own aircraft with cheaper ones crewed and based outside Scandinavia to compete better with other airlines.

[39][40] The Swedish Pilots Union expressed its dissatisfaction with the operational structure of the new airline, suggesting it violated the current labour-agreements.

[43][44] In July 2021, the European Commission approved a Swedish and Danish aid measure of approximately US$356 million to support SAS.

This measure is a result of the closure of Russian airspace for flights to Asia which caused a severe drop in demand and efficiency.

With the investment (if approved by the EU Commission, and respective US and Swedish courts),[54] SAS will leave Star Alliance and join SkyTeam alongside Air France–KLM.

[64] On 17 September 2024, SAS announced a partnership with Braathens Regional Airlines (BRA), designating them as a subcontractor to operate flights from Stockholm Arlanda Airport starting in 2025, with BRA announcing it would cease operating its own domestic flight network from Stockholm Bromma Airport.

[65] This collaboration, valued at approximately SEK 6 billion over seven years, aims to strengthen SAS's domestic network in Sweden, increasing daily departures to destinations such as Visby, Gothenburg, Malmö, and Luleå.

[66] On 18 September 2024, just a month after the completion of the restructuring, SAS announced expansion of the route network from Copenhagen Airport with 15 new destinations from Summer 2025.

The A350 will first fly on the Copenhagen and Chicago route, with the airline planning Beijing, New York, Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong and San Francisco when more A350 are delivered.

The engine casing is painted in scarlet (Pantone Warm Red/Pantone 179C) with the word Scandinavian in white, the thrust reversers in the color of the fuselage.

On European flights, SAS Plus tickets are refundable and include a meal, a double checked-in baggage allowance, and access to lounges and fast track security at the airport.

SAS offers free coffee and tea to GO passengers on short-haul services, except very short flights like Bergen-Stavanger or Stockholm-Visby.

Prior to this, SAS offered Internet access on board on its long haul aircraft and a small number of Boeing 737s.

"[130] which tells a story about company's values and highlighting the ideas and inventions that globalism brought to Scandinavia, which caused an outrage among right-wing groups due to its perceived denigration of Scandinavian culture.