November 19th, 2023. For many Stockholmers, it’s just a regular Sunday evening. You know, the typical Swedish “winter” when the sun goes down at 3 PM, but it’s already dark by 2:30 PM. For aviation enthusiasts, it’s undeniably not a regular Sunday! It’s the last flight of a Boeing 737 operated by SAS. What a moment! What a vibe! What a crazy amount of people who are joining this memorable SK737 flight from Stockholm Arlanda to Oslo Gardermoen! Seeing the number of enthusiasts waiting to board the airplane at gate D11 is just a way for me to warm up, both mentally (with positive vibes) and physically (yes, it gets cold in Stockholm in late November). It was truly nice to be able to also witness the announcements at the gate and chat for a bit with my Swedish friends, Viktor and Edwin, people who I spotted departures on runway 08 at ARN earlier that day. They are flying the last ever 737 operated by SAS, Dag Viking! The clock is showing 17:37 UTC, marking the time for the last-ever SAS 737 flight. And just like that, LN-RRB is pushing back from Gate D11 at Stockholm Arlanda. The ground crew was also extremely excited to be taking part in this once-in-a-lifetime moment. And so was I. Usually, the flight time between Stockholm and Oslo is around 45 minutes, give or take. Today, it’s 2:31 minutes. It’s now officially gone! The last ever SAS 737 to operate at Arlanda has taken off from runway 08. If you say Scandinavia, you are more than likely to refer to the three countries that compound it, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. So now, it might be a little bit clear why Scandinavian Airlines, or SAS for short, has chosen to do a flight from Stockholm to Oslo in 2 hours and 31 minutes. Yes, you guessed it! It’s first heading towards the Danish capital, Copenhagen, making a low pass over Kastrup Airport, at just over 785 feet above runway 4R. Continuing over to its final destination, Oslo, it spends about 20 minutes just south of the Norwegian village of Nevlunghavn, drawing a “700” over the Skagerrak Strait. This is the moment when more than 50.000 people are tracking the flight on FR24. And it’s now almost landing at Oslo, but… wait a minute. Didn’t it fly over the runway at Copenhagen Kastrup? Why wouldn’t do the same at Oslo Gardermoen? So at around 1300 feet is now flying over runway 1R over the busiest airport in Oslo, minutes before touching down for the last time operating for SAS. End of an era…
I would also like to thank Swedavia for making this airside visit possible on such a commemorative day! Hej då, 737!