Non-stop service from Houston to Stavanger, Norway is coming at the end of August.
Map generated by the Great Circle Mapper - copyright © Karl L. Swartz.
SAS believes they’ve identified a niche market which is ready to cough up the big bucks necessary for convenient, point-to-point service connecting major business centers. Or, as Rickard Gustafson, President and CEO of SAS, indicated in a statement, “The route we have established is a tailored product for a defined market with particular travel needs.” In this case the market is the oil & gas industry. Stavanger is a jumping off point for much of the North Sea exploration area and Houston is a hub of activity for the industry as well as a connecting point for other regions with strong business ties to the market.
SAS is launching the route using a 737 from PrivatAir in 44-seat business class configuration. KLM used to operate a similar configuration between Houston and Amsterdam, also targeted at the oil & gas market. The route will operatee 6x weekly (no Saturday service). Tickets go on sale 29 April 2014. We’ll see if this one lasts longer than Delta’s ORD-LHR route (though I have to believe SAS has at least one corporate contract in hand to announce such a route, so it likely will actually operate). I just know that I want that line. Time to stalk award inventory.
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Wow!! Didn’t see this route coming, I thought the North Sea was running out of oil. Good for SAS…
wow i nearly thought it’s early april’s fools =)
totally didn’t expect this service.
If it’s cheap, I’ll fly it just to spite the “I’m in the run around” business atteey Tudinal peeps .
Or at least I’ll use it to tell them, YOUR PRICES TOO HIGH. Your english is good. Price TOO HIGH. Mao.
Nice, this is another fun possibility for travel out of my hometown! Thanks Seth.
Are the PrivatAir seats fully Lie Flat? It is the only reason I avoid SAS, even though there are a few times they would have been convenient to fly.
PrivatAir configures the plane per the marketing airline spec. In this case it will be 44 SAS business seats.
KLM does 44 WBC seats and it is not lie-flat. I expect the SAS layout will be similar.
Definitely an oil route. SVG is an interesting little airport. Typical efficient Scandinavian operations. No fast pass or airport lounge though.
I grew up in Katy, a suburb of Houston and home to a *ton* of Houston’s oil expats. I knew several people from Stavanger (dated one for a while) and at one point they were one of the largest ex-pat contingencies in the area due to the North Sea boom.
I hearby dub this flight the “ConocoPhilips Express”
Looks like it hasn’t been loaded into the UA systems yet… Would be a cool way to burn the rest of my UA miles.
It’ll be loaded into the GDS at the end of April. Patience, young grasshopper. 😉
I hear the sunbathing is great during the summer months…