The arrival at SAS pilots hits thousands of additional passengers

The Scandinavian SAS airline canceled hundreds of flights on Sunday as a pilots strike continued, disrupting tens of thousands of pbadengers.

The pilots began a strike Friday in a wage dispute, blocking about 70% of the company's flights and hitting some 170,000 people over the weekend.

"We deeply regret that our customers are affected by the current pilot strike," SAS said in a statement.

Some 64,000 pbadengers will be affected on Sunday with 587 canceled flights.

& # 39; Real will & # 39;

"We believe that the unions must face the reality and resume negotiations," said Torbjoern Lothe at the Norwegian Confederation of Enterprises, an employers' badociation involved in negotiations with unions last week, in Reuters.

One of the two SAS pilot unions in Norway, Norsk Pilotforbund, said it had no contact with the airline.

Rawaz Nermany, president of the Swedish Airplane Pilots Association, said: "We are waiting for SAS to communicate with us and show a real willingness to discuss the issues we care about."

Pilots in Norway, Sweden and Denmark went on strike.

A total of 670 flights were canceled on Friday, affecting 72,000 pbadengers, SAS said. And Saturday's cancellations touched 34,000 more people.

The pilot judgment comes after the break in negotiations on wages and working hours – which began last month -.

Most domestic, European and all long-haul flights have been canceled. The strike does not concern flights operated by SAS partners, which represent about 30% of all departures.

Customers who have booked a flight are asked to check if their flight is affected by the strike.

& # 39; Negative consequences & # 39;

SAS said it wanted to "reach an agreement to end the strike as soon as possible," but warned that if the requirements of the pilots were met, it would have "very negative consequences" for the airline.

Pilots are trying to get a 13% salary increase. They currently earn an average of 93,000 Swedish kroner (£ 7,500) a month.

The arrival of the pilots comes in a difficult economic context for SAS. It is currently renewing its aging aircraft fleet and is facing increasing competition from low-cost carriers such as Norwegian, Ryanair and Easyjet.

The airline announced a larger than expected loss for its first quarter in February, but said it expects to record a profit for the year.