Strike for SAS pilots: more flights across Scandinavia

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – The Scandinavian airline SAS has canceled hundreds of scheduled flights on Sunday as the pilot strike entered its second day, disrupting travel plans for tens of thousands of passengers.

SAS pilots went on strike on Friday as pay talks broke down, blocking about 70 percent of the company's flights and hitting some 170,000 people over the weekend.

"We deeply regret that our customers are affected by the ongoing pilots' strike," SAS said in a statement on Saturday in which it explained the flight cancellations it had made for the rest of the weekend.

"As a result of the strike, approximately 64,000 passengers will be affected by 587 canceled flights in Scandinavia."

SAS has taken action, for example by offering free food to passengers waiting for alternative flights at Scandinavian airports, but several travelers have complained on social media about their inability to reach the airline's customer service.

"Hey, SAS, I 'm looking to contact you for a day now," wrote one of them on Twitter, to which SAS responded, "Our customer service answers the phone as quickly as possible. Retry. "

The national carrier, which partly belongs to the Swedish and Danish governments, said it was ready to resume negotiations, but warned that responding to pilots' demands would have disastrous consequences for the company.

The Swedish employers' organization of the aviation sector said the pilots were asking for a 13% increase in wages, despite what he called an already high average wage of SEK 93,000 a month.

The SAS Pilot Group, a trade union representing 95% of the company's pilots in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, says the conflict is not only about salaries, but demands more predictable and transparent working hours .

Sydbank analysts have estimated that the strike cost SAS 60 to SEK 80 million ($ 6.3 to $ 8.41 million) per day, which would wipe out the airline's net profit for two weeks. .

The strike at SAS does not affect the flights operated by its partners, which represent about 30% of departures. The airline said it was offering passengers booked on flights made until May 1 to schedule them for free.