SAS pleasure: SAS on the offensive for the leisure traveler

SAS PLEASURE: SAS ON THE OFFENSIVE FOR THE LEISURE TRAVELER SAS has become a serious contender on the leisure travel market with the launch of SAS Pleasure. With a series of attractive offers which give value for money and are simple to purchase, SAS will make SAS Pleasure a competitive new trademark in Scandinavia. "SAS Pleasure is our way of participating in that part of the market growing most rapidly, while making use of the available capacity on board our aircraft. This is a long-term investment but in the next three years SAS Pleasure should be bringing in sales of one billion SEK a year and carrying an additional 1000 passengers a day," says Erik Strand, SAS Senior V. P. Marketing and Sales. SAS Pleasure is primarily aimed at seasoned travellers who travel in their leisure time and pay out of their own pocket, as well as younger people belonging to the category "future experienced travellers". These groups will now have the chance to make use of the tailor-made SAS Pleasure offerings. Through SAS Pleasure they can purchase everything from a cheap airline ticket up to a complete package with hotel and activities at the destination. "SAS Pleasure will be sold through all of our sales channels and will be simple to purchase," says Erik Strand. "Internet will be an increasingly important channel where offers can be advertised and ordered simply and efficiently. We will offer trips that can be purchased at short notice when the travel bug hits. In addition, customers will have greater freedom to choose both the date and time of departure. " One new feature will be the "Weekly Four-Leaf Clover", SAS Pleasure's bargain of the week, with 25 to 40 percent discount off Jackpot fares. This will be offered for one week at a time. The "Weekly Four-Leaf Clover" can be ordered on the Internet and through travel agencies. Created in cooperation with Lufthansa, the sale will appear for the most part every Saturday year round. The "Weekly Four-Leaf Clover" is valid mainly from the larger cities in Scandinavia but special connection fares from other domestic destinations will also be available. Another step in the SAS Pleasure investment will be the auctioning of tickets on the Internet. Together with Lufthansa, tickets will be auctioned starting at an opening bid of 400 SEK. Under the name "SAS Last Call" the Internet auction will appear on a regular basis. As of now the first SAS Last Call auctions are planned for March 8 and 9, between the hours of 1200 and 2200 each day. "SAS PickPack" is the name for inclusive travel offered through SAS Pleasure, where SAS cooperates with a number of tour operators. "SAS PickPack" will initially contain some fifteen to twenty package trips ranging from destinations in Scandinavia all the way to to China. SAS Pleasure will also make additional special offers which will coincide with holidays such as Easter, summer vacations and Christmas. Going by the name "SAS Special" they will for the most part be also valid on Lufthansa. January 20, 1998 Page 2 During the past 15 years SAS has marketed itself as 'The Businessman's Airline' and concentrated its resources there. The strategy has been very successful and today SAS is the airline in Europe with the largest share of business travellers. SAS will continue to be the businessman's airline. However, this does not prevent SAS from also focusing on leisure travellers. SAS Pleasure is the biggest effort SAS has made on the leisure travel market to date. It will give SAS important market shares within leisure travel, an area predicted to grow more rapidly than the business travel market during the next ten years. SAS CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS For further information: Hans Andersson, V.P. Marketing & Sales Sweden, tel: +46-8-797 1544 ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2003/07/30/20030730BIT00090/wkr0001.DOC http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2003/07/30/20030730BIT00090/wkr0002.pdf