SAS flights will be cut again in April, with the Scandinavian carrier saying it expects to cancel at least 1,000 departures after a sharp rise in jet fuel prices linked to the war involving Iran. The announcement marks a significant escalation from the smaller round of cancellations already seen in March and shows that what initially looked like a short-term operational adjustment is turning into a broader restructuring of capacity across the Nordic airline’s network.
SAS chief executive Anko van der Werff said the price of jet fuel had doubled in ten days. According to Dagens Industri, the shock has increased the cost of an average SAS trip by about SEK 500 (€46) and a transatlantic journey by around SEK 2,700 (€251). SAS has already introduced a fuel surcharge on tickets, but the company is now also cutting flights to contain costs.
Why April will be hit harder than March
The airline had already cancelled a couple of hundred flights in March, most visibly on routes in Norway, where more than 100 domestic departures were removed in one week. April, however, is set to be much more affected. Van der Werff said SAS normally operates around 800 flights a day, meaning the April reductions amount to a noticeable but still targeted cut rather than a collapse of the schedule.
The timing is not accidental. SAS said more cancellations are expected after Easter, when demand usually softens and airlines have more room to consolidate flights without dismantling core connectivity. In practice, that means the company is trying to protect the broader network while removing departures on routes with enough frequency to absorb passengers elsewhere.
How fuel prices turned into SAS flight cancellations
The immediate trigger is not just that fuel is expensive, but that it has become expensive extremely quickly. Jet fuel prices have surged since the escalation of the Middle East conflict, and SAS says the speed of the rise has made it difficult to absorb the increase through normal pricing alone.
This is why the company is combining two responses at once: higher fares for new bookings and fewer flights on parts of the network where alternatives exist. SAS has said passengers who already bought tickets will not face retroactive price increases, but those still booking spring and summer travel may face higher fares if the fuel shock continues.
Which Nordic routes are most exposed to the cuts
SAS has indicated that the first routes to be affected are destinations with several daily departures, where passengers can more easily be moved onto another flight. That is why the earliest cuts were concentrated in Norway, a market where domestic aviation is essential but where trunk routes can still offer some rebooking flexibility.
The impact, however, is not limited to Norway. Earlier this week, SAS also cancelled flights on the Copenhagen-Oslo corridor, and the company has said Sweden will also be affected. Because SAS runs an integrated Scandinavian network built around Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm, cuts in one part of the system can ripple across the Nordics by reducing connection options, tightening frequencies and making same-day rebooking harder.
SAS has also paused routes to Tel Aviv and Beirut while the war continues. In addition, the launch of a new direct service from Copenhagen to Dubai, originally planned for October, could now be delayed.
What the April cuts mean for Nordic passengers
For travellers, the immediate issue is not only cancellation but rebooking capacity. Consumer experts in Norway have warned that the April cuts will create a heavy customer-service burden because SAS will need to rebook a very large number of passengers in a short period.
Under EU passenger rights, travellers whose flights are cancelled are entitled to a choice between reimbursement, re-routing at the earliest opportunity or re-routing at a later date under comparable conditions. That matters in particular on Nordic and European routes where SAS may need to move passengers onto other departures, and in some cases potentially onto competing carriers if that is the only realistic way to get them to their destination.
The wider consequence is that Nordic passengers may now face a double effect: higher prices for new bookings and less flexibility on some routes, especially where airlines respond to fuel volatility by cutting marginal capacity.
Why this is a bigger story than one airline’s schedule
The latest announcement suggests that SAS is moving from a temporary defensive reaction to a more deliberate cost-containment strategy. At least 1,000 April cancellations is still only a minority of the airline’s monthly flying programme, but it is large enough to show that the fuel shock is no longer being handled only through surcharges and small timetable tweaks.
The broader Nordic significance is clear. SAS is not just another airline in the region: it is one of the main carriers connecting the capitals and feeding traffic between smaller Nordic cities and the rest of Europe. When it cuts capacity, the effect reaches beyond the airline itself, influencing fares, competition and the resilience of Nordic connectivity.
That is also why the market reaction matters. Rival carrier Norwegian has already said it will add extra flights between late March and mid-April to capture some of the displaced demand. The next few weeks will show whether this remains a temporary adjustment or becomes the beginning of a wider reshaping of Nordic air travel if fuel prices stay at current levels.
