Stockholm (TAN): The fifth day of the Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) pilots’ strike has led to the cancellation of over 500 flights scheduled for today.
This pilot strike that began late last week made the airline cancel over 3,000 flights, affecting about 327,000 passengers so far.
More than 47,000 travellers will be affected by the 504 SAS flight cancellations across Scandinavia on May 1, the airline said.
The strike took place after the last-minute negotiations between SAS and the Swedish Air Line Pilots Association broke down. As a result, 492 Swedish SAS pilots had called for a strike. 545 Norwegian and 371 Danish pilots followed.
SAS Chief Executive Officer Rickard Gustafson said that negotiations between the company and unions did not bear any fruit yet.
“The demands made by the pilots’ unions entail significant cost increases for SAS that would threaten the company’s long-term competitiveness and consequently, the jobs of all SAS’ employees. SAS has clearly stated that we are prepared to continue negotiating and find a solution. The unions have not yet indicated that they are ready to release their ultimate demands and return to the negotiating table, which means that we remain in a deadlock,” he added.
The protest of the pilots occurred because they demanded a 13 per cent hike in their salary, which the SAS representatives have termed ‘unreasonable’. Instead, they are ready to increase the salary of the pilots by 2.3 per cent since pilots are the highest paid workers. However, the pilots’ unions have argued that this information is incorrect.
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The strike follows Swedish pilot union’s (Svensk Pilotförening, SPF) rejection of the mediator proposals for agreements. Negotiations have been held since March with the support of the external mediators in the final stages. SAS wishes to continue negotiations and reach an agreement to end the strike as soon as possible. Negotiations are still going on in Denmark and Norway.
SAS said that the strike will not affect flights operated by its partners.
Passengers who are concerned their travel plans could be disrupted by the strike are being offered a chance to rebook or cancel their tickets free of charge until May 5.
The Stockholm-based carrier is a part of Star Alliance, flying its passengers to 1,300 destinations across the world. The airline transported around 30 million passengers in 2016-17.
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