More than 900 Scandinavian Airlines pilots are stepping down from their jobs due to the threat of a pay cut. This means that half of all flights should be canceled during the peak travel season. According to the SAS boss, this puts the future of the already ailing airline at risk.
Half of all flights at Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) will be canceled due to a pilot strike. 30,000 passengers are affected every day, SAS has now announced. The pilots decided to stop working after collective bargaining failed, the company said. It is not yet clear when the strike will begin.
The SAS share, which was already on the ground, lost another eight percent on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. SAS boss Anko van der Werff complained about a “strike culture” among the pilots of the company, which was in financial difficulties. “How on earth is a strike going to help us find investors in the busiest week in two and a half years?” The walkout put the future of the company and thousands of jobs at risk. “The decision to go on strike now shows the ruthless behavior of the pilots’ unions and a shockingly poor understanding of the critical situation in which SAS finds itself,” said van der Werff. He apologized to all passengers affected by cancellations and delays.
The more than 900 SAS pilots stationed in Sweden, Norway and Denmark had spoken out in principle in June in favor of an indefinite strike. They resisted planned salary cuts, which they said could be up to 30 percent. The tariff talks were therefore extended until this Monday – in the hope of a solution.
The salary cuts demanded by management are part of an austerity program to ensure the survival of the company, which had suffered badly in the Corona pandemic. The strike is an additional burden on the already ailing industry in the middle of the summer travel season. Due to personnel problems, problems such as flight cancellations, delays and long queues at the checkpoints are currently occurring at a number of European airports.
