SAS Cancels Flights As Pilots Strike

April 25, 2019

A pilot strike at Scandinavian airline SAS has caused the cancellation of over 300 flights on Thursday and Friday.

SAS Cancels Flights As Pilots Strike

Swedish pilot union SPF (Svensk Pilotförening) called a strike after the rejection of mediator proposals for a solution to the dispute over terms and conditions.

SAS said it wanted to continue talks to reach an agreed settlement to end the strike as soon as possible. Talks have been going on since March, recently with the involvement of external mediators. The airline said negotiations are still ongoing in Denmark and Norway.

SAS is the national airline of Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

Over 200 flights were cancelled on Thursday and another 110 cancelled on Friday, with domestic, European and long-haul flights all affected.

“It is deeply regretful that the pilots strike will have a negative impact on our customers,” the airline’s Director of Communications Karin Nyman said. “SAS is prepared to continue to negotiate, but if the requirements were to be met, they would have very negative consequences for the company. Nonetheless, the pilot union have chosen conflict.

“Our first priority now is to take care of our passengers and at this moment in time, all SAS employees are doing everything they can to help customers affected.”

All members of the Swedish pilot unions at SAS are striking, but services operated by SAS partners, which make up around 30 percent of departures are not affected.

(Airwise)