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Talks between the airline and pilots over a new collective
bargaining agreement collapsed on Monday, prompting a strike
which adds to travel chaos in Europe and deepens the financial
crisis at SAS, which estimated it would ground half its flights.
The troubled airline, whose biggest owners are the Swedish and
the Danish states, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in
the United States on Tuesday. The first hearing was due to begin
at 1400 GMT in New York with SAS expecting the process to take
between nine and 12 months.
Tuesday's traffic figures highlighted what SAS was now missing
in the peak summer period, with the airline flying 1.9
passengers in June, a 220% increase on the year.
Data from flight tracker FlightAware showed 202 flights, 66% of
the airline's daily total, were cancelled on Thursday.
"The notice of strike from the SAS Scandinavia pilots’ unions
started impacting our bookings toward the end of the month," SAS
CEO Anko van der Werff said in a statement.
"We continue our SAS FORWARD restructuring plan in which all
stakeholders need to participate in order to secure SAS’
financial stability."
SAS, which has struggled for decades with a high cost base
relative to low-fare rivals in Europe, has said the strike will
cost it $10 million to $13 million per day and had accelerated
its decision to seek bankruptcy protection.
SAS has said the move will help it accelerate restructuring
plans, including deep cost cuts, announced in February.
The striking pilots have said they would consider pay cuts, but
cannot accept SAS hiring new pilots through two new
subsidiaries, under what unions say are worse terms.
(Reporting by Niklas Pollard; Editing by Anna Ringstrom and
Alexander Smith)
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