According to SAS communications director Karin Nymani, there will be no new messages about the negotiations before eleven o’clock in the morning, and a possible strike will not start before then.
Mediation of the SAS pilots’ strike threat continues overnight, says the Swedish public broadcasting company SVT.
The strike by the pilots unions of Sweden, Norway and Denmark was originally supposed to start at one o’clock in the morning Finnish time.
SAS chief negotiator by Marianne Hernæs said that the new deadline is five o’clock on Saturday morning. About an hour later, SAS’s director of communications Karin Nyman announced that the deadline is in the morning at 11 o’clock Swedish time, reports SVT on its website (you will switch to another service).
A possible strike would not affect the flights of partners
SAS previously said that the strike by the Swedish, Norwegian and Danish pilot unions would affect all flights operated by SAS Scandinavia. According to the news agency TT, about 900 pilots would go on strike, which would stop about 200-250 daily flights.
The strike would not affect the flights of SAS’s external partners Xfly, Cityjet and Airbaltic. Xfly flies, for example, SAS’s Saturday flight from Helsinki to Stockholm. SAS offers those who have booked a flight the opportunity to change the reservation free of charge.
Norwegian media VG (you switch to another service) says that the director of the Norwegian SAS pilots association Roger Klokset according to the fight for the basic rights of workers is so important that the pilots allow SAS to drift even into bankruptcy if necessary.
– If the company is unable to follow the Nordic model, then we see that it is an operator that has no right to survive, Kloxet said.
SAS communications manager Nyman was horrified by Kloxet’s words.
– The statement is completely absurd. We are in a difficult economic situation, we have to move forward with our change plan. Threatening bankruptcy in this situation is shockingly careless, Nyman told TT.