SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK, Copenhagen Kastrup) will cancel three domestic Swedish routes in November and December 2024 due to a capacity shortage as it transitions from Xfly (Estonia) (EE, Tallinn Lennart Meri) to BRA - Braathens Regional Airlines (Stockholm Bromma) as the provider of wet-leased ATR72-600 capacity, the airline confirmed to ch-aviation. The new ACMI partner will begin operations for SAS on January 2, 2025.

Following the cancellation of the contract with Xfly, effective November 1, SAS has been forced to cancel all flights on three routes from its Stockholm Arlanda hub to Angelholm/Helsingborg, Ronneby and Sundsvall-Härnösand. "We needed to secure a long-term partner and BRA can only start in their new role as a wet lease partner in January. Unfortunately, this led to a gap in our capacity for November and December", a SAS spokesperson told ch-aviation.

The new regional partnership, announced last month by both parties, will see the ATR - Avions de Transport Régional turboprops being placed with BRA - Braathens Regional Airways (TF, Trollhättan).

Grant McKelvey, head of unit at the Swedish Competition Authority (Konkurrensverket), told the Swedish news agency TT that the deal was currently under review, although it was not formally notified to the regulator. BRA's chairman, Per G. Braathen, contended that "the contract should not have to be notified, as it represents a switch from scheduled passenger operations to ACMI". As previously reported, BRA will end its own scheduled operations when it begins the SAS contract.

The ch-aviation schedules module shows BRA's fleet of ATR72-600s is expected to start operating for SAS on various regional routes beginning January 2, 2025, from Stockholm Arlanda, followed by Copenhagen Kastrup on January 13. Flights from Aalborg and Aarhus will commence on January 19 and 25, respectively. The Swedish regional carrier operates a fleet of fourteen 72-seater ATR72-600s, with ages ranging from 4.7 to 8.9 years, two of which are wet-leased to Austrian Airlines (OS, Vienna), whilst expecting a delivery of a fifteenth unit, dry-leased from Nordic Aviation Capital.

The current regional fleet of SAS consists of four ATR72-600s and seven CRJ900s wet-leased from Xfly, fourteen additional CRJ900s from CityJet (WX, Dublin International) along with ten E195 operated through SAS Link (SVS, Copenhagen Kastrup).