Excellent news for inhabitants of West Pomerania. A true breakthrough
for companies. After years of struggling and lobbing, West Pomerania
and Denmark will finally be connected by scheduled flights with frequency
of five times a week. On 1st April 2019, the first plane of the Scandinavian Airlines System will take off from the Copenhagen Airport and fly
to the Szczecin–Goleniów Airport. Today in the morning, the new route was announced together with plans for the development of the network
in the Radisson Blu Hotel in Szczecin.
‘Scandinavian citizens in general, and Danes in particular, know very well
that West Pomerania is an excellent place for business. Here they can find good employees, favourable conditions and supportive administration. The only component missing was fast air transport. The decision made by SAS is an important signal for us and a valuable response to our needs. We believe that it is going
to unleash the potential of the region. For passengers it is going to be a short flight that will contribute to long-term cooperation, partnerships and the development
of the Polish and Danish businesses’, said Marshal Olgierd Geblewicz.
Flights of only 35 minutes, from Monday to Friday, are going to be provided during the 2019 summer season. You can start booking tickets today for the SAS flight between Copenhagen and Szczecin–Goleniów Airport and the first plane will take off on 1st April flying from Denmark to Poland. Both the Westpomeranian Region
and the Airport tried to have the service established for ten years. A breakthrough moment came in January 2018 when the delegation representing the airport, Marshal’s Office, City of Szczecin and DGS met senior representatives of SAS in Stockholm. The opening of the destination has been thoroughly analysed
by the airline. The route is attractive for Danish tourists who visit West Pomerania
in large numbers all year round and for Poles since Copenhagen, which is the SAS hub, provides connecting flights to over 200 destinations all over the world. The new scheduled flight is also welcomed by Poles working in the Danish capital and in its vicinity, as well as good news for businesses.
‘The new route is a long-term investment by SAS in Szczecin, which we hope will be well received by the business community, the public sector, universities and leisure travellers alike. Faster and better travel opportunities should encourage businesses to grow in Szczecin and Westpomeranian Region, further strengthening the region’s already strong ties with Scandinavia’, said Andreas Akerman, Network Manager
for Poland at SAS.
The SAS service will facilitate Danish investment and management of their companies based in West Pomerania where they have already invested over one billion PLN. West Pomerania is the second Polish region (after Mazovian Region) most frequently selected by Danish business. The largest investors in the region include DGS (over 2 thousand employees), Espersen (nearly 2.5 thousand), LM Wind Power (almost 1 thousand), KK Wind Solutions (550 employees), Bestseller, Prime Cargo, 3Shape, JVP Steel and Ferrosan. Every year companies based in West Pomerania export to Denmark goods worth nearly PLN 1 bn. According to the survey among Scandinavian companies based in the region, they are interested in flying
at least 10 thousand people every year on the route to Copenhagen.
‘The decision to establish the direct scheduled flight from Szczecin to Copenhagen is the response to the expectations of the business community. In our region, we have many Scandinavian companies representing various sectors, such as medical, finance, IT and manufacturing. A possibility of fast transportation between Copenhagen and Szczecin should significantly facilitate business contacts, since even the most modern technologies are still incapable of replacing person to person contacts. Considering the rapid business development and ever changing demands of the market, there is a continuous need to travel fast. For this reason, we really appreciate the establishing of the new route and anxiously await the first flight’, reads the statement by DGS Poland Sp. z o.o.
SAS is the fifth carrier flying to and from Goleniów. It joined PLL LOT, Ryanair, Norwegian and Wizz Air. Copenhagen is the 11th scheduled route
apart from Warsaw, London Stansted, Oslo Gardemoen, Dublin, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Oslo Torp, Stavanger, Bergen, and Stockholm Skavsta.
In 2017, the Szczecin-Goleniów Airport handled passenger traffic of 578,691.
The expected volume by the end of this year is 615 thousand people. According
to the plans of the Airport, the development of air service networks should generate traffic of 700,000 passengers. It is worth mentioning that in the past four years
the air traffic more than doubled.
