Connect Sweden – Samarbete är framgångsreceptet

Personal stories about the possibilities of aviation

Here you can read stories from prominent people about how air travel has taken them outside Sweden and the possibilities it has created for them as individuals, the companies they work for and Sweden as a nation. We have gathered articles in a printed anthology (in Swedish) which you can order here.

KJELL A NORDSTRÖM – Industrial economist and author

They’re there. We’re here. If we’re to compete with the blue banana, it’s not enough to be just as good, because then everyone will stay where they are. We have to be better. The basic principle is the same for an athlete – we need to be 2–4 per cent better.

MARIA RANKKA

CEO of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce

If I were a politician, I would contemplate the right combination of carrot and stick to get large-scale production under way, in order to transform Swedish domestic air travel as a first step. People in the industry say this can be done in 10–15 years, but it won’t happen on its own.

GUSTAV HEMMING

Politician, Centre Party

After 2060, there may be four million people living in the region, surpassing Copenhagen. We won’t be a megacity like London or Paris, but we’ll be the perfect size without the disadvantages of a megacity in terms of distances and crowding.

DARJA ISAKSSON – Strategy in digital transformation

I want to be able to test innovative services at Arlanda not in ten years but in three years.

HÅKAN AGNEVALL

President of Volvo Bus

We know that roughly three million people die each year due to air pollution. Electrically-powered transport is environmentally-friendly and efficient, and a switch to this would entail a considerable reduction in air pollution.

KARIN WANNGÅRD

Social Democratic politician, mayor of Stockholm, municipal counsellor for finance and chair of the City Executive Board.

What I would like to see now is the development of Arlanda. I would like to see a fourth runway, and the region has to give things a push now.

JOHAN KARLSTRÖM

CEO of Skanska

We can’t minimise our investment. Instead we have to look at the life cycle cost, investments, maintenance and refurbishments and then connect that to income streams.

GERT WINGÅRDH – Architect

Arlanda should feel Swedish since it should feel like the place people are travelling to. The question is what’s distinctive about Sweden?

DANICA KRAGIC JENSFELT

Professor of computer science

As long as we build bodies like the human body and develop capabilities based on sensor data that function the same way our senses do, then I see no limits. It’s more a matter of what the solutions are, a mobile robot, or a solution with intelligence integrated into different aspects of an airport. They’re available to some extent today.

JOHAN EDSTAV

At the time of the interview, county council commissioner. Now appointed by the Swedish government to serve as national coordinator for large-scale housing developments

And Arlanda can continue to grow, but that depends on whether we’re successful in dealing with climate change. The challenge now is to find solutions for the production of environmentally-friendly fuels, without increasing fuel costs.

OLA ROLLÉN – President and CEO Hexagon

Ola Rollén leads a company that operates in more than 40 countries. He is based in Hong Kong, the company is headquartered in Stockholm, and London is the natural meeting place for senior management. He thinks air traffic to and from Stockholm needs to be taken seriously even from a political point of view.

MICAEL DAHLÉN

Professor of Marketing

Travelling will be a crucial source of inspiration when the major social problems of our time are to be solved. To efficiently travel from A to B is important, but the biggest gains lie in what the trip will bring in the next stage.

RICHARD MILNE

Financial Times

The great flattening of the world that air travel has created has huge benefits for business, boosting economic growth. The aviation industry has a global economic impact of $ 2.2 trillion.

HÅKAN BUSKHE

President and CEO SAAB

Swedish companies have 200 subsidiaries in São Paulo with a combined sales of more than 50 billion Swedish crowns. In a way, São Paulo has become Sweden’s biggest industrial city. However, a direct flight from Sweden to São Paulo, or Brazil, has yet to be created.