SAS becomes Official Travel Partner for East Indiaman

SAS today signed a partnership contract with the East Indiaman Götheborg project. As a result of the contract, SAS has been appointed the recommended airline for travel by the members of the project and other partners to such destinations as China and ports in other countries, where the ship will make stops.

Involvement with the East Indiaman is an important aspect of SAS' commercial focus on China, and the airline will launch many special offers for travel to and from China in connection with the project.

SAS Flight Academy, the Group's training center for flight personnel, will also offer the ship's crew members special maritime training, a course adapted for shipping based on long experience of pilot training.

"SAS is today's East Indiaman in many ways. It now takes slightly more than 13 hours to travel from Gothenburg to Shanghai, while it took nearly a year in the Eighteenth Century. We have an important heritage, and we are symbolizing this by participating in the project," said Jörgen Lindegaard, SAS' President and CEO.

Many commercial activities will be organized in conjunction with port calls, in particular, in Gothenburg and Shanghai, with one of the aims being to strengthen Swedish exports. Through their participation, the SAS Group's various companies will be visible in these ports until the ship returns to Gothenburg in September 2007.

The East Indiaman, which is a replica of an Eighteenth Century Swedish trading vessel, will depart from Gothenburg in October 2005, and is scheduled to arrive in Shanghai in August 2006.

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