Scandinavian airline SAS has announced 1,213 flights will be cancelled on Monday and Tuesday, meaning an additional 110,000 passengers won’t be able to fly. The flights have had to be cancelled because the airline’s pilots have gone on strike because they are unhappy with their working conditions. At Brussels Airport, 10 flights to and from Stockholm planned for Sunday and Monday have been cancelled. The same applies for eight flights to and from Oslo and six flights to and from Copenhagen.
A total of nearly 280,000 passengers have been affected since the strike started on Friday, after negotiations between the parties involved broke down. The airline issued a press release that said 667 flights would be cancelled on Monday and another 546 on Tuesday.
The majority of the cancelled SAS flights are interior flights, but European and long-haul flights have been hit by the strike as well. More than 1,400 pilots are taking part in the protest.
The Swedish airline pilot’s association, which is behind the strike, said months of negotiations had not managed to solve the issue of pilot’s “deteriorating working conditions, unpredictable hours and lack of job security”. The Swedish transport company confederation said it could not grant the 13% salary increase the pilots are requesting, as it would cost “an average of 93,000 crowns (8,766 euros) a month”.
The Brussels Times
