SAS Cargo, whose roots in international air cargo transportation extend back more than nine decades, has appointed Airline Network Services its General Sales Agent for the Pacific Northwest region of the United States with effect of August 1, 2009.

Jens Tubbesing, chief executive of ANS, who issued the announcement of the ANS-SAS Cargo arrangement, noted that as a former unit of Scandinavian Airlines System--it became an independent company within the SAS Group in 2001--SAS Cargo has actually been an active service in the US for decades.

In particular, SAS has been a strong presence in Seattle, with extensive experience in the Pacific Northwest market that it had been serving for over the past 43 years. Sea-Tac International Airport was the destination of SAS'Cargo's maiden flight to the US. The service will go offline at the end of July, with interline connections to SAS's Chicago and Newark flights.

CEO Tubbesing, who formerly headed Cargo Network Services as its president, asserted that the coupling of SAS Cargo and ANS represents assurance'of high service standards and follow-through responsibility on behalf of the customer.

Although ANS is headquartered in New York, Seattle ranges as a major gateway in the agency's nationwide network, enhanced by the employ of state-of-the-art technology and professional staff.

Declaring that market intimacy is a valuable asset, Tubbesing observed that SAS introduced international air freighter services within Europe and to the US as far back as 1951. Today, its SAS Cargo offshoot relies on an aircraft fleet composed of B737, Airbus A330/340/321, MD-80/90 and CRJ800s.

Apart from blanketing Scandinavia with flights to 50 cities, the airline operates to a similar number of markets within Europe and 11 intercontinental destinations. SAS Cargo's trans-Atlantic freighter services are accomplished through block-space pacts.