About 1,000 pilots from Denmark, Norway and Sweden representing the Nordic flag carrier SAS have ultimately declared a strike after two postponements and several failed attempts to reach an agreement with the ailing airline.
The pilots announced the strike due to dissatisfaction with their pay and working conditions.
Among others, the pilots accuse the pan-Scandinavian airline of wage cuts and increased working hours, as well as abusing the pandemic to sack personnel and re-hire them though internal mailbox companies.
Chief negotiator Keld Bækkelund Hansen of Dansk Metal, the trade organization, to which the pilots in the Danish Pilot Association belong, described the core of the Nordic model as “management and employees negotiating an agreement on pay and working conditions, and then both parties complying with it”.
“But the management of SAS has set up subsidiaries and used them to break the agreements they have entered into with their own employees. SAS will not guarantee that they will not do it again. Of course, we can not accept that. If SAS can be allowed to do so, we fear it may spread to other industries as well”, Bækkelund Hansen told Danish Radio.
According to SAS, 200-250 flights and 20,000-30,000 passengers will be affected every day the conflict lasts. Norwegian broadcaster NRK estimated that the strike will cost the troubled airline between NOK 80 and 100 million ($8.1 to 10.1 million).
“This is really bad news for our passengers. We are crushed. It should have been the summer where everyone had to travel again”, SAS CEO Anko van der Werff said at a press conference. He didn't mince his words as he criticized the pilots for choosing this last resort.
“We've just been through a terrible pandemic. We have received many tax kroner, and it is therefore shameful that this is the way in which the pilots pay back for this generosity and for the countries' patience with the company”, he said.
Sydbank's head of equity analysis, Jacob Pedersen, called it a “bad day for passengers and a really bad day for SAS”. He ventured that the company has been hit by a “huge, life-threatening crisis”.
“Hopefully the parties will be wiser, because the money has already flowed out of SAS 'coffers, and even more will flow when the planes are parked. You have to find out a way, otherwise SAS is heading directly into bankruptcy if you cannot agree”, Pedersen told Danish Radio.
According to Pedersen, it will be demanding for SAS to attract new investors who can save the company, as they are currently “running away” because they see what is going on.
In recent years, Scandinavia's largest airline has been caught in a crossfire of problems due to an unfortunate combination of staff shortages, labour disputes, piling debts and plummeting demand, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nine consecutive quarters of substantial losses despite massive loans and relief packages from its majority owners have left the airline fighting for survival.
The pan-Scandinavian flag carrier SAS is currently co-owned by the Swedish and Danish governments, which control 21.8 percent each. Before the pandemic, SAS operated 180 aircraft to 90 destinations. Its main hubs include Copenhagen Kastrup, Stockholm Arlanda, and Oslo Gardermoen.