No longer the Lufthansa Group, with Eurowings, Swiss, Austrian, Air Brussels, ITA being the only dominant airline group in Europe, Dutch-based KLM and Air France are aggressively laying the European trend of airline consolidation by acquiring a majority ownership in Scandinavian Airlines SAS.

Air France-KLM will initiate the process of raising its minority stake in Scandinavian airline SAS AB to 60.5%, as it looks to extend consolidation in the European aviation industry and better compete with rivals Deutsche Lufthansa AG and British Airways owner IAG SA.

Air France-KLM aims to own 60% of the Scandinavian airline, which said that the deal is "essential to ensuring long-term competitiveness."