SAS flights cancelled for Sunday as strike hits second day
The cancelled flights on Sunday will affect around 64,000 passengers, adding to the estimated 34,000..
By Sunday Herald Team , in World Update , at April 28, 2019
The cancelled flights on Sunday will affect around 64,000 passengers, adding to the estimated 34,000 passengers whose flights were already cancelled on Saturday.
"We want nothing more than that the parties return to negotiations as soon as possible so that no more passengers are hit," the company's press chief Freja Annamatz told Sweden's TT newswire.
"First and foremost, we apologize," the company's Norwegian media head Knut Morten Johansen told state broadcaster NRK. "We made a decisive move yesterday by pre-canceling, so that there was more predictability today. I think we had a less chaotic situation at the airports than would otherwise have been the case."
The Scandinavian airline has been forced to ground around 70 percent of flights after 1,400 pilots went on strike over pay and conditions. The strike is estimated to be costing the company between 60m and 80m Swedish kronor a day.
"We must reach an agreement for the sake of our customers," SAS chief executive Rickard Gustafson told the Swedish newswire TT on Friday.
"It's pretty clear that it doesn't exactly improve our reputation when we're not delivering what we promised customers."
Rawaz Nermany, chairman of the Swedish Pilot's Union, told The Local that he and his union would not restart talks unless it was offered clear concessions from the company.
"Up until this moment they haven't been willing to discuss any of our demands, and that's not a renegotiation is it? Just sitting there looking out of the window with your arms folded," he said. "They have to shift their position if there's going to be any constructive dialogue."
Gustafson said he was ready to make more concessions to the pilots, but not to the extent that SAS becomes uncompetitive. "We have to make sure that the company remains competitive in the long term, otherwise it's not going tRead More – Source
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