SAS Group has announced plans to sell holdings in Spanair and Air Greenland to finance an upgrade of its position in the northern Europe.

This follows a decision to focus on developing core business of flying within northern Europe, home to most of its important customers.

"To ensure development and future investment needs, we must increase pre-tax profit to SEK4 billion (US$566.4 million) per year while lowering costs by SEK2.8 billion," said SAS chief executive Mats Jansson.

Changes call for more non-stop routes and departures to increase passengers numbers 20 per cent in four years. The group said future structure and roles of other operations, such as SAS Ground Services (SGS), SAS Technical Services (STS) and Spririt, will be evaluated to see if they fit into the reorganisation.