The SAS pilots' strike has started - hundreds of flights are canceled every day

About 900 pilots in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark are affected by the SAS strike. Instead, SAS flights to Finland will continue as normal, as the flights are operated by an external partner.

Jul 4, 2022 - 00:06 Updated: Jul 4, 2022 - 00:08

The SAS pilots' strike has started - hundreds of flights are canceled every day

The strike cancels about half of all SAS flights and affects the travel plans of about 30,000 passengers.

However, the strike does not affect flights operated by SAS Link, SAS Connect, and SAS's external partners Xfly, Cityjet, and Air Baltic.

Despite the strike, SAS flights to Finland will continue as normal. SAS's Estonian partner Xfly flies two round-trip flights between Stockholm Arlanda and Helsinki-Vantaa every day.

On the other hand, cancellation of the trip is possible for those passengers who have a connecting flight from Stockholm on SAS flights to Europe or North America. The most cancellations on Monday are SAS flights from Oslo and Copenhagen. You can check the impact of the strike on flights at www.sas.se/travel/flight status/(you switch to another service).

SAS offers those who have booked a flight the opportunity to change the reservation free of charge. However, it can be difficult to find replacement flights, because according to SAS, there are limited seats during the peak summer season.

The pandemic caused a labor fight

SAS pilots announced a possible strike on 29 June.

According to the Swedish Pilots Association, SAS violated the clause of the collective agreement that protects employees dismissed for financial reasons.

Earlier, SAS announced that it would not hire the 560 pilots who were laid off during the pandemic, but would use the pilots of its subsidiaries SAS Link and SAS Connect in the future. The companies are personnel rental companies.

Negotiations between the pilots' associations of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark and SAS have continued since November last year. The parties have not reached an agreement. The pilots' old collective agreement ended at the end of March.

According to Anko van der Werff, CEO of the airline SAS, an agreement on the labor dispute was not reached today in the negotiations between the company and the pilots.

Strike a million losses

Danish Sydbank analyst Jacob Pedersen estimates that the strike will cost SAS approximately 80-90 million Danish kroner, or 10-12 million euros, per day.

Last month, SAS transported an average of 58,000 passengers per day.