SAS says time running out as pilot strike enters third week
By Anna Ringstrom and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -SAS warned on Monday that point was working out as negotiations resumed with pilot unions to finish a two-week strike that the Scandinavian airline says threatens its existence.
Most SAS pilots in Sweden, Denmark and Norway walked out on July 4 after talks over situations associated to the service’s rescue plan collapsed. The events returned to the negotiating desk within the Swedish capital on July 13.
The lead negotiator for SAS stated that point was working out and that Monday could possibly be the ultimate day of talks between SAS administration and unions.
“We’re approaching some extent the place, as lead negotiator, I’ve to confess that now we will not go any additional,” Marianne Hernaes advised reporters as she arrived on the talks on Monday.
“We’re quickly on the finish of the highway … Cash is flowing out of the corporate … So some selections must be taken,” she stated, with out giving specifics.
Nonetheless, unions expressed hope an answer could possibly be discovered. The optimism was additionally mirrored in beneficial properties in SAS’ share value.
“I hope it’ll get solved,” Jan Levi Skogvang, one of many union officers representing SAS pilots, advised reporters.
Shares in SAS have been up 18.7% at 1059 GMT and have been headed for his or her greatest day by day achieve in virtually 20 months as talks continued, although the inventory is down almost 70% over the previous 12 months.
The airline filed for U.S. chapter safety on July 5, however its CEO Anko van der Werff stated final week that the strike was placing the success of that course of and, in the end, the survival of the corporate at stake.
Negotiations had continued by way of the weekend in a marathon 33-hour session with out breaks, however vital points had but to be resolved.
Lengthy-struggling SAS wants to draw new traders and safe bridge financing, saying it should first slash prices to realize these aims.
The strike is costing SAS $10 million to $13 million per day, based on the airline. Sydbank analyst Jacob Pedersen estimates that if the strike continues, the airline may have misplaced as much as 5 billion Swedish crowns ($481 million) in money circulation by the tip of July, or greater than half of its liquidity.
“The chance of chapter ought to have been eradicated with the U.S. chapter safety submitting,” stated Pedersen. “However because the strike continues, the traders that have been lined as much as present bridge financing are having second ideas.”
Pilots employed by the 75-year-old service’s SAS Scandinaviasubsidiary stated after talks collapsed that they’d conform to restricted wage cuts and fewer beneficial phrases, whereas SAS stated the concessions provided weren’t sufficient for it to hold out a rescue plan introduced in February.
Unions additionally demand that pilots axed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic are rehired at SAS Scandinavia moderately than having to compete with exterior candidates for jobs on much less engaging phrases at not too long ago created SAS Hyperlink and Eire-based SAS Join.
On Monday, 200 SAS flights, or 62% of these scheduled, have been cancelled, based on flight-tracking platform FlightAware.Pilots at SAS Hyperlink and SAS Join should not on strike.
($1 = 10.3913 Swedish crowns)
(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; writing by Anna Ringstrom, Gwladys Fouche and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; modifying by Muralikumar Anantharaman, David Goodman and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
