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Snowflake was a low-cost airline that operated out of Stockholm, Sweden, and Copenhagen, Denmark between 30 March 2003 and 30 October 2004. Owned by the SAS Group, it was organized as a business unit within Scandinavian Airlines, operating as a virtual airline using their crew and aircraft. Snowflake served a total 28 destinations from its bases at Stockholm Arlanda Airport and Copenhagen Airport. The concept was launched using four Boeing 737-800 aircraft. It aimed primarily at Mediterranean holiday destinations, as well as destinations aimed at expatriates. From March 2004 two aircraft were replaced with two McDonnell Douglas MD-82s. The airline underestimated its costs and achieved an insufficient load factor, thus making services unprofitable. Upon terminating operations, Snowflake continued to be used as a brand for discounted tickets on European destinations. ==History== During 2003 SAS was undergoing a major restructuring program, which largely focused on reducing unit costs. As part of this work, the company's management in cooperation with McKinsey & Company devised a scheme to better target the leisure market. Inspiration was both gathered from Ryanair and SAS' partner airline Lufthansa's low-cost subsidiary Germanwings. SAS had just bought its main Norwegian competitor, Braathens, and had also cleared out most of the Swedish domestic competition through the purchase of Linjeflyg. The airline was worried about new entrants in these markets, and was especially concerned with Ryanair and EasyJet. The SAS Group announced the airline plans on 10 December 2002, at the time giving it the temporary name Scandinavian Light. The company stated that they would create a low-cost airline which would focus on the leisure holiday market with focus on Mediterranean destinations. SAS hoped that the new airline would target a different market than Scandinavian Airlines and that the latter would instead focus on the business. A challenge for the company was at the time that it had overcapacity after a recent drop in ridership. The Snowflake brand was announced on 19 March 2003 and services commenced on 30 MArch. Four Boeing 737-800 were keyed to the new airline and painted in a new livery. Two were stationed at Stockholm Arlanda Airport and two at Copenhagen Airport. SAS chose not to launch the service in Norway. It considered the newly formed SAS Braathens to be a lost-cost carried and did not see the need for a differentiation in the Norwegian market.〔 Snowflake launched ticket prices starting at 279 Swedish krona (SEK) and 295 Danish kroner (DKK) plus taxes. About ten seats per departure were sold at this level, and there were additional pricing levels. The first services were provided from Stockholm to Alicante, Athens, Barcelona, Bologna, Budapest, Dublin, Istanbul, Málaga, Nice, Prague and Rome. From Copenhagen the airline inaugurated with flights to Alicante, Athens, Bologna, Lisbon, Málaga, Palma de Mallorca, Pristina and Sarajevo. The latter two were particularly aimed at expatriates, rather than tourists.〔 By May the airline had achieved a load factor of seventy percent, increasing to eighty-two percent by September. Snowflake then announced two new destinations from Stockholm from the start of the winter program in October: Lyon, Beograd and Beirut. The latter two were mainly aimed at Lebanese expatriates. A new fare scheme was introduced from 1 October, whereby there were eight price levels, ranging from €58 to €228. Meanwhile, it started with discounted booking fees when tickets were ordered online. In November Snowflake announced that it would bull out of the Dubline and Barcelona services, stating low profitability. Scandinavian Airlines instead started to serve the Dublin route. Snowflake was hit by a strike in the SAS Group starting on 1 February 2004 amongst ground handlers. From February Snowflake introduced services from Stockholm to Bilbao and Olbia. Starting with the 2004 summer schedules, commencing 28 March, SAS introduced additional services. From Copenhagen the airline started flights to Ankara, Beirut, Skopje, Split and Valletta. From Stockholm services were introduced to Ankara, Inverness, Lisbon, Palma de Mallorca, Split, Skope and Valletta.〔 At the same time two more aircraft, 156-seat McDonnell Douglas MD-82s, were introduce with Snowflake.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Snowflake Fleet Details and History )〕 In May 2004 the load factor had dropped to forty percent. Snowflake announced large cut-backs for the following winter program, and planned to only operate four services, to Athens, Istanbul, Nice and Rome. This was down from thirteen the previous winter season. With two flights each per week, this would give a very low fleet utilization rate. Snowflake had originally had success with their expatriate routes, but from 2004 patronage had fluctuated significantly on those routes. Similar cuts were carried out in Copenhagen, reducing to ten services per week. This included the announcement of a new destination – Cairo.〔 Two services, to Dublin and Prague, were taken over from Stockholm by Scandinavian Airlines. A further four destinations were cut with the winter program. All services to Spain were taken over by Spanair, also owned by the SAS Group. The load factor increased to eighty percent during the summer months. SAS announced on 18 August 2004 that it would terminate services with Snowflake with effect 30 October. Snowflake would be carried on in the Swedish and Danish market as a brand name for discount tickets on European destinations. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Snowflake (airline)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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