SCANDINAVIAN AIRLINE SAS is considering expanding its services from Dublin airport this winter. It has already decided to add two flights a week on its route to Stockholm to meet demand.

It’s looking at early-morning flights to Copenhagen, probably six times a week. This would allow business people to attend early meetings in the Danish capital.

SAS wants to promote Copenhagen as a hub for Irish flyers to Asia and eastern Europe.

Company executives met the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) and Tourism Ireland among others this week, seeking support for the possible expansion. Dublin, Brussels and Manchester are looking to win the business.

“We see there’s potential for SAS to gain market share and that’s why we are investigating closely a night stop in Dublin,” Christian Hylander, SAS’s senior vice-president for corporate and agent sales, told me. “I have no doubt the DAA will support us . . . they are hungry. We can get passengers in from Scandinavia and the likes of China .”

SAS, which is going through a painful restructuring in order to return to profit in 2011, says its load factors are 80 per cent-plus on routes into and out of Ireland. The airline appears to be generating healthy volumes in its business class and economy extra cabins. About two-thirds of its traffic originates in Scandinavia, with Swedish and Danish companies accounting for a lot of business out of Dublin.

“We are looking now to develop the Irish potential,” Hylander said. The timing seems odd, but Hylander is positive. “There is a gap to be filled from the SAS perspective. Believe me, we wouldn’t be looking at this if we didn’t think there was serious potential for us here.”