Stockholm (TAN): Good news for travellers flying across northern Europe. The Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) pilot strike has come to an end following an agreement on Thursday.
All flights in Denmark, Norway and Sweden will resume ‘as soon as possible’, SAS said.
The seven-day strike that affected approximately 360,000 passengers, led to cancellation of 4,015 flights after the pilots stopped work on April 26.
President and Chief Executive Officer of SAS Rickard Gustafson said: “It is with relief I now conclude that our customers soon will be flying again and that we will be able to pursue our commitment to travelers to, from and within Scandinavia.”
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It took SAS and the Swedish Air Line Pilots Association 30 hours to reach a new three-year collective bargaining agreement.
While the agreements between SAS and the pilots’ unions involved ‘predictability of scheduling, job security and salaries’, agreements associated with collaboration and career trajectories that were earlier cancelled were brought back.
Scheduling was one of the chief points, with pilots protesting erratic work hours that at times made them work seven consecutive weekends, reports said.
The pilots had also demanded a 13 per cent salary hike, which was reportedly agreed at 3.5 per cent by the airline for 2019.
“The three-year agreements provide stability for the future and the terms of the Swedish agreement are on par with the industrial benchmark for the Swedish labor market (the so called “märket”). SAS operates in a highly competitive market and with these agreements we now need to intensify our work to build a long-term profitable and sustainable SAS”, Gustafson said.
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SAS incurred an estimated loss of 60 to 80 million Swedish krona a day owing to the strike, the news agency Xinhua reported.
SAS operations are expected to return to normal over the next few days.
