Apparently it's not just airline passengers getting slapped with criminal charges these days. Former SAS cargo executive Timothy Pfeil is turning state's in an investigation into a conspiracy by airlines to violate antitrust rules. A plea agreement will have him serve six months in exchange for help in further investigations into how numerous airlines illegally worked together to fix prices on air cargo.

He's not the first executive to face prison time, either. In May, former Qantas cargo VP Bruce McCaffrey pleaded guilty and was sentenced to eight months for price fixing.

Whole airlines, too, have been snagged by the Feds in the conspiracy investigation, among them British Airways, Japan Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Air France-KLM.

Lesson learned: Don't let anyone tell you these companies aren't at least a little bit shady!

Related Stories:
· DOJ Press Release on the Pleas [Official Site]
· SAS Exec Faces Jail in US [UK Travel Weekly]
· Timothy Pfeil [LinkedIn]
· Crime coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: mgus]]]> pbb 2008-07-30T16:00:02-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/7/8/25436/92913

From those clever Scandinavians who pioneered slow flying instead of adding extra fees for passengers comes another innovative idea: an airline website specifically for gay customers.

SAS Airlines has just launched its LGBT site which includes tips from its own gay crew members on good places to hang out in (so far) Copenhagen and Stockholm.

SAS is a major player in the World Out Games being held next year in Copenhagen, and it's also promoting the Stockholm tenth anniversary Pride Parade coming up later this month. We are definitely starting to look to SAS as trend-setters.

Related Stories:
· SAS Airlines LGBT Life [Official Site]
· Scandinavian Alternative to Nasty Baggage Fees [Jaunted]
· SAS Airlines Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: virtualpilot88]]]> amandak 2008-07-10T17:45:14-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/5/28/55127/5385

Those Scandinavians are smart people, and at the moment they've got a much better strategy for dealing with rising fuel costs than the ol' add-a-new-fee system being wholeheartedly embraced by a bunch of airlines.

At SAS they've just published the results of their "slow flying" strategy, where they reduced the cruising speeds on their flights by about 80 kilometers per hour. In the last year and a half, this simple idea has saved them $12 million in fuel costs--and barely a single passenger noticed. A domestic flight up Norway at the slower speed takes just three minutes longer; it's a ten minute difference if you fly from the top of Norway all the way to Paris.

Going a tiny bit slower sounds a whole lot nicer than getting charged $15 for your suitcase, doesn't it? Problem is you have to be flying in or out of Scandinavia to take advantage of this trick.

Related Stories:
· SAS Saves By Slowing Down [Aftenposten]
· Airline Fees coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: airforceone]]]> amandak 2008-05-28T09:45:01-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/4/9/73556/13075

In the tradition of curious Scandinavian airline marketing--we're thinking of Finnair's creepy panda--SAS Scandinavian Airlines is launching a new, multilingual marketing campaign.

The whole thing centers on using local languages in English-language advertising. The reasoning is, according to one of SAS's general managers, that

the Scandinavian languages, like the region's sleek, stylish designs, reflect the real essence of what makes this vast northern region so unique.

Yeah. Unique--or really difficult to understand. The meant-to-be-eye-catching ads use words like Bättre (it means better) and Störst (which, of course, means largest). We're not sure if these words are sleek and stylish or just unusual. Would you really buy a ticket on SAS just for the umlauts?

Related Stories:
· SAS Ads Embrace the Scandinavian Languages [BusinessWire]
· Finnair's Creepy Panda [Jaunted]

[Photo: tölvakonu]]]> amandak 2008-04-09T09:15:01-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/