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STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – SAS airline and crisis-hit unions have made progress on a new savings deal to end a 13-day pilots’ strike, but there are still significant issues to be resolved, a mediator told news firm E24 on Saturday. .
Most SAS pilots in Sweden, Denmark and Norway left the post on July 4 after negotiations on a rescue plan similar to that of the Scandinavian airline failed. The parties returned to the negotiating table in the Swedish capital on Wednesday.
Norway’s national mediator, Mats Wilhelm Ruland, said the parties had grown closer on the day.
“Yes, we are, but there are still many important questions to be resolved,” he told E24 at a break in negotiations on Saturday. “The progression in the first few hours was good. “
SAS had been suffering with cheaper festivals for years before the COVID-19 pandemic put pressure on the airline industry. The governments of Denmark and Sweden, which are the main owners, see it as a key to the region’s shipping infrastructure.
The airline said Thursday that the strike canceled 2,550 flights, affecting 270,000 passengers and costing the airline between $94 million and $123 million.
Pilots hired through SAS Scandinavia, a subsidiary of the SAS Group, said they would settle for limited pay cuts and less favorable terms, but SAS said the concessions submitted were not enough to carry out a rescue package announced in February.
Unions also don’t find it easy for pilots who lost their jobs during the pandemic to be rehired at SAS Scandinavia, rather than having to compete with outside applicants for jobs on less hot terms at the newly created Ireland-based SAS Link and SAS Connect.
(Reporting through Johan Ahlander; Editing via Nick Macfie)