SAS strike: Thousands of passengers have flights cancelled as pilots stage walkout

Pilots are walking out over unpredictable hours

The SAS strike has affected hundreds of flights (AFP/Getty Images)

Hundreds of flights have been cancelled today as SAS pilots stage a strike.

More than 70,000 passengers will be affected by the walkout, which is causing widespread delays and 673 cancellations in total.

Some 1,400 pilots are striking in the dispute over pay and shift patterns; last-ditch mediation talks failed in the early hours of this morning.

Passengers hit by the strike should receive text and email updates from the airline.

“First and foremost, we apologise”, SAS information chief Knut Morten Johansen told NRK. “Now, fortunately, we have done a good job in advance to reduce the scope.

“We made a solid move yesterday by pre-cancelling so that there was more predictability today.

“I think we have a less chaotic situation at the airports than would otherwise have been the case.”

All long-haul routes, apart from those to the US, are cancelled, and a significant number of domestic and European flights are also affected.

Flights operated by SAS’s partner airline, CityJet, are not impacted by the strike.

The Swedish pilot union (Svensk Pilotförening, SPF) initiated the call to strike, backed up by those in Denmark and Norway.

The main bone of contention is salaries, closely followed by irregular and unpredictable shift patterns.

“We entered these mediations with the requirement to get virtually the same agreement as our competitors in Norwegian, Ryanair or easyJet,” said Christian Laulund of the Norwegian SAS Pilots Association (NSF) in a statement.

“This is about how a pilot can plan his life and ensure predictability, so that one can have a private life that works with the job.”

It is uncertain whether the strike will continue to affect flights this weekend.