Miami’s airport just added new international flights. What to know about the routes
South Florida travelers have a new option to travel to Europe. Scandinavian Airlines — commonly known as SAS, and the carrier of Sweden, Denmark, and Norway — resumed non-stop flights from Miami International Airport to Scandinavia on Oct. 29.
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Here’s what to know about the new Scandinavian flights:
How frequent are the Miami-Scandiniavia routes?
Flights:
▪ Miami-Copenhagen flights will operate five times a week round-trip.
▪ Miami-Stockholm runs twice a week.
What type of aircraft?
Seating: SAS uses A-330 aircraft, a wide-bodied plane manufactured by Airbus. The planes have 262 seats. Business class takes up 32 of those seats, SAS-plus holds 56 and Economy has 174 in the rear.
Will the flights be year-round?
Seasonal: The seasonal service to Denmark and Sweden will likely run until May 2024, Jasmin Utter, general manager of the Americas for SAS, said in an interview. This is the third straight year SAS has operated seasonal service from Miami, after shutting it down during the pandemic, she noted. It returned in the 2021-22 winter season.
What’s been the response so far?
▪ About a week of flights are in the books, and the “route is performing well and there is demand,” Utter said. She declined to provide specifics on how full flights have been.
▪ Scandinavians like to escape during tough winter weather and take refuge in Miami. And so, “Florida is a very desirable destination for Scandinavians,” Utter said, explaining a large part of the demand. Meanwhile, Miamians are finding new transit hubs in Europe and new ways to travel there. “More and more are discovering not just Scandinavia as such but the Scandinavian airports,” said the SAS executive. “And they start to use them as hubs when they travel to other destinations in Europe.”
What are other new flights at Miami’s airport?
SAS’ new flights come as traffic and passenger volume is surging at Miami International Airport and new destinations are regularly added:
▪ American Airlines, the largest airline in the world and biggest by market share at Miami’s airport, and Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, are adding routes and flights.
▪ A Canadian discount carrier, Porter Airlines, is offering free beer and wine when it takes off beginning Dec.13 with flights to and from Toronto.
▪ Finnair will start operating direct flights between Helsinki and Miami later this month. The three times a week service will begin Nov. 25 and go until March 28, 2024.
▪ Barcelona-based airline LEVEL said recently it would begin three weekly flights between Barcelona and Miami on March 31, 2024.
▪ German low-cost airline Condor Airlines announced it would start flying three times a week next May between Miami airport and Frankfurt.
▪ In September, Norwegian discount airline Norse Atlantic started flights from Miami airport to London Gatwick four times a week and to Oslo two times a week. On Dec. 12, Norse plans to begin operating flights from Miami to Paris four times weekly, and beginning Dec. 14, to Berlin once a week.
▪Also in September, Haitian airline Sunrise Airways launched flights four times a week between Miami International Airport and Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince. It also began flying four times a week between MIA and Hugo Chavez International Airport in Cap-Haitien.
Who is taking the SAS flights?
Utter, the SAS executive, expects this season like past ones to mostly draw tourists and leisure travelers.
Corporate travel is still minimal, she noted.
In Scandinavia so far, “Miami so far has not been characterized as a business destination,” she said. “So, it’s mostly people coming to enjoy Florida.”
That may change.
The executive said SAS is noticing the movement of tech and finance professionals to Miami from other parts of the country. “We can see that things are certainly changing in the U.S. between the states.”
