Strikes grounds hundreds more Scandinavian Airlines flights

COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Scandinavian Airlines says it will cancel another 504 flight departures across the Nordic region on Wednesday, affecting about 47,000 passengers, due to a pilots’ strike.

A picture taken on February 18, 2019 shows an aircraft of the Scandinavian airline (SAS) parked on the tarmac at the airport of Manchester in England. (Photo by Christof STACHE / AFP)

The cancellation comes on top of 546 flights canceled Tuesday and hundreds more since pilots began an open-ended strike on Friday due to the collapse of pay negotiations.

CEO Rickard Gustafson says the pilots’ demands “entail significant cost increases for SAS that would threaten the company’s long-term competitiveness and consequently, the jobs of all SAS employees.”

Gustafson said Tuesday the airline was “prepared … to find a solution” in the talks on a new collective bargaining agreement. Those talks, he said, are in “a deadlock.” /gsg