SAS strike: More than 1,200 flights cancelled leaving thousands of passengers stranded

Pilots say they face ‘deteriorating working conditions’ as talks collapse

Travellers wait at Gardamoen Airport in Oslo, Norway (AFP/Getty Images)

Around 170,000 travellers were left stranded over the weekend, after pilots working for Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) went on strike over pay and unpredictable shift patterns.

Nearly 600 flights were cancelled after the industrial action began on Friday.

Some 1,400 pilots are striking in the dispute, which has now entered its fourth day.

Last minute mediation talks between the airline and the SAS Pilot Group, the union which represents most of the company’s pilots across Denmark, Norway and Sweden, collapsed on Friday.

SAS plans to cancel another 1,213 flights across Monday and Tuesday, which will affect a further 110,000 passengers.

The company said it “deeply regrets” the distress caused to passengers.

The airline industry’s employer body in Sweden has said pilots in the country sought a 13 per cent wage hike.

It is unclear what wage demands were made by pilots in Norway and Sweden.

But the pilots’ union said the dispute went beyond pay and pointed out that staff were asking for more predictable working hours.

“We expect that one can get the same terms of service as other low-cost carriers,” said Henrik Thyregod, the vice-chairman of Danish pilots’ union Dansk Pilotforening.

“SAS should not be the worst place to work as a pilot,” he said, according to The Local Norway.

“We do not have unreasonable demands, and we have tried to find a solution.”

Wilhelm Tersmeden, chair of the Swedish pilots association, said SAS pilots faced “deteriorating working conditions, unpredictability in planning work hours and insecurity for their own job".

“Almost one in four SAS flights is flown by subcontractors and we want to know what our future looks like,” he told Sweden’s TT news agency.

An SAS spokeswoman claimed that the pilots’ demands would have “very negative consequences for the company”.

The airline said it was offering refunds and free rebooking for those affected.

Additional reporting by agencies