On Thursday, SAS and the pilot unions agreed to deviate from the SAS pilots’ strike and to fly stranded charter passengers home to Scandinavia. Yesterday, Friday, 18 SAS planes took off and today, Saturday, another 33 take off.
But the exemption from the strike only applies during Friday and Saturday, and for more passengers to be flown home in the coming days, the parties must agree on a new exemption, says SAS’s communications director Karin Nyman.
– We got an exception yesterday and today. But we do not know what it looks like from day to day.
On Saturday, discussions will take place about a new exception for Sunday. According to it, 21 planes will take off tomorrow. However, nothing has been determined yet, says Karin Nyman to SVT on Saturday night.
Danish sympathy strike complicates
In addition, 200 Danish aircraft mechanics went on a sympathy strike with the SAS pilots, which complicates the process according to Karin Nyman. Despite the pilot unions saying yes to an exception on Thursday, the mechanics’ union Dansk Metal said no.
– The mechanics are needed to maintain the plane when they are parked. We have requested access to nine mechanics, but so far we have not received an okay one. These two days we have been without them. We could have flown home several if they had given an okay.
Ever since the pilot unions announced a strike, SAS has demanded that all charter traffic be excluded and flown as usual. But in that question, the unions have said a resounding no.
– But we are still happy that we get the stranded travelers home, says Karin Nyman.
“It’s unfortunate”
On Saturday, there were about 300 passengers from the charter company Ving and 400 from Apollo whose SAS plan was canceled, all with destination Landvetter, reports TT.
– They are affected more severely than other travelers because they can not rebook themselves, but are dependent on the plan going. It is unfortunate, but very good that they have been given exceptions so that they can fly home. The situation is starting to get quite serious in several places, several charter operators have reported.