Scandinavian Airlines Ireland Ltd, also known as SAS Ireland, is an Irish subsidiary of Scandinavian Airlines. The airline only operates flights on behalf of SAS Scandinavian Airlines. Despite being an Irish airline, none of its aircraft are based in Ireland, but in London Heathrow and Malaga instead.
SAS Scandinavian Airlines set up its Ireland-based subsidiary in early 2017 and expected it to be operational by 1 November 2017. Initially, the airline was expected to be equipped with nine brand new Airbus A320neo and commence flights out of London Heathrow with five of them and later also from Malaga in spring 2018 with the remaining four aircraft on behalf of its parent company.
SAS' intention was to replace its own aircraft with cheaper ones crewed and based outside Scandinavia to compete better with other airlines. The airline doesn't employ staff itself, instead staff are supplied by an aviation recruitment firm: CAE, which started the employment of the back end personnel in 2017.
The Swedish Pilots Union expressed its dissatisfaction with the operational structure of the new airline, suggesting it violates the current labour-agreements. The union also lamented the lack of coverage in Scandinavian media. The Swedish Cabin Crew Union also condemned the new venture and stated that SAS established the airline to "not pay decent salaries" to cabin crew. Jonas Sjöstedt, the leader of the Swedish Left Party (Sweden) told a newspaper that the government of Sweden would have to stop the establishment of the new airline, but the Swedish minister for enterprise, Mikael Damberg told the same paper that "it is not an issue for the owner if the company decides to open bases abroad".
Citing delivery delays, SAS Ireland had to delay its launch until December 2017. The first revenue flight took place on 20 December 2017 from Copenhagen to London Heathrow.
In the summer of 2018, many flights intended to be operated by SAS Ireland were either cancelled or operated by the parent. At the same time, 26 pilots at SAS Ireland sent a letter to the corporate governance at SAS Group criticizing working conditions and safety levels. The chief instructor at SAS Ireland resigned after being criticized for having safety standards which were too high. During the brief period that the airline had been operating, they experienced the leave of a number of pilots with most of the employed ones actively looking for new employment.
Livery
Airbus A320-251N, registration EI-SIE, built 2018, serial number 8058 Cointrin (GVA), Geneva, Switzerland, 22 July 2018
