Hej, Hallo & Hej då!

In September 2001, the Airbus A340-300 with Manufacturer Serial Number (MSN) 424 and test registration F-WWJP was registered as SE-REB and delivered to SAS Scandinavian Airlines. After just two months in service, the airline re-registered the plane as LN-RKG, christening it Gudrod Viking and sending it to San Francisco, Tokyo and Los Angeles, to name just a few of its destinations. The carrier took to the skies for the airline, which was founded in 1946, for a total of 19 years and was reconfigured on a regular basis to carry between 245 and 261 passengers per flight in various different class configurations. From April to October 2019, another very special sticker adorned the plane with “Mao Sun” and “Xing Er”, two pandas from Copenhagen Zoo, greeting passengers with the words “Welcome to Copenhagen”. Gudrod Viking - like the entire SAS Airbus A340 fleet - was retired in March 2020. Since then, the plane has been awaiting recycling in Castellon, Spain. As of June 2021, the SAS Scandinavian Airlines fleet has consisted of 133 aircraft averaging an age of 9.3 years.

Fun fact: SAS was the first airline to use the shortcut from Europe to the US West Coast via the “polar route” as it is known (though it didn’t actually fly over the North Pole) with a Douglas DC-6B in November 1954. SAS was also the first airline to introduce a Europe-wide electronic reservation system in 1965, and in 1969 hired Turi Widerøe, the first female pilot in a Western airline.