The airline SAS is one of the founding members of the Star Alliance aviation alliance. But now it has been announced that they will be leaving and moving to Skyteam. The background is also that a consortium around Air France-KLM is involved.

The Star Alliance was founded in 1997 by United Airlines, Thai Airways, Lufthansa, Air Canada and SAS. The alliance is now considered the largest of its kind in the world. The Scandinavian member will soon be joining the Skyteam, which has existed since 2000.

SAS boss Anko van der Werff has not yet given a specific date for the alliance change. This will happen in due course, said the manager when announcing which bidder was awarded the contract in the sales process. This would have been sent to the consortium that submitted the highest bid.

Air France-KLM will receive 19,9 percent of SAS in the future. The remaining shares are distributed as follows: State of Denmark 25,8 percent, Castlelake 32 percent, Lind Invest 8,6 percent and the rest is to be distributed as free float to numerous creditors. The Swedish state and the Wallenberg family, who are currently significant shareholders, will no longer be involved in the future.

The consequence of this new ownership structure is that SAS will realign itself. This also includes switching to Skyteam. Air France-KLM boss Benjamin Smith described the award to the consortium in which the group he leads is represented as an important day for SAS.

In the past, the Scandinavian aviation company was considered a takeover candidate for Lufthansa. There have always been industry rumors that the Kranich Group wants to swallow the Star Alliance partner. But that didn't happen because a consortium in which Air France-KLM is represented won the race.