Rune Andre (67) and Kristin Løland (57) did not return home from the holiday trip. They feel that neither party in the strike really wants to help them.
Less than 20 minutes ago
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The couple has been on holiday in Parga in Greece for three weeks, and on Monday morning they were to travel home to Oslo and back to work.
At 21:30 on Sunday night, the message came: “Your flight has been canceled”.
The couple is traveling with the travel company Apollo, and the airline that was to take them home was SAS. Rune is anything but happy with the dialogue he has had with Apollo.
– Apollo only points to SAS, they have no plan B. They should arrange flights to us via either Norwegian, Flyr, British Airways or whatever it may be – they must have an agreement with other airlines as well.
–Rune also says that he does not accept SAS’s public excuses, and that the situation incurs extra expenses.
– The Eurobonus card will be cut in two, and never again SAS on either business or holiday.
Had to put my foot down
On Thursday last week, the pilot association SAS Pilot Group (SPG) opened to make an exception and bring home stranded tourists.
But on Sunday, the pilots withdrew this exemption.
The agreement between SAS and the association was that all destinations should be approved by the pilots in advance.
The pilot association received a list of destinations from SAS, which they initially did not approve, but they chose to let the journeys through the weekend regardless of the interests of the passengers, according to Roger Klokset in the pilot association.
– The dispensation was to be used in isolated destinations with few flights and few alternative transport options. We see that SAS, for example, has flown to places with a mainland connection, where it was possible to travel by bus, for example. We were not strict, but when SAS exploits this so much, we had to put our foot down, says deputy head of SPG, Roger Klokset.
–Klokset further tells of another important reason why they stopped the dispensation.
– Approximately half of SAS’s flights are operated by chartered airlines. An important prerequisite for the exemption was therefore that SAS redeployed these aircraft to this traffic as far as possible. It was not done at all, for commercial reasons. All trips were operated by us and by our members who had gone on strike.
– Extreme lack of transport
SAS does not recognize itself in the criticism from the pilot association.
Communications manager in the company Tonje Sund says that they do not share the view that alternative return journeys could easily be organized for those who are stuck.
– There is an extreme shortage of transport throughout Europe, says Sund.
When it comes to the leased airlines that SAS has at its disposal, Sund explains that if these are reallocated to pick up passengers who are stuck, it goes beyond anyone else.
– We have reallocated where possible, but it is also the case that almost all flights are fully booked. We do not prioritize certain customers over others, says Sund.
Sund strongly apologizes to travelers.
–“The pieces in a game”
Rune Andre believes that the pilots use the situation as a means of pressure, and Kristin says that they feel like “the pieces in a game”.
– The pilots use this list, where they claim that it is not difficult for tourists to get home. That’s not good enough, because if they really wanted us, they would just take away the destinations they thought were not valid, instead of stopping the dispensation altogether.
Klokset says that he understands the point of view and the situation very well.
– There is nothing we want rather than to avoid a strike in its entirety – it hits people every single day.
– But is it not difficult enough to get from, for example, Greece to Norway?
– Yes, but that can be said about all destinations, now that it is summer and fully booked flights. It is therefore unfortunately not possible to dispense on the basis of such a criterion.
–Apollo’s communications manager, Beatriz Jaquotot Rivera, says that on Friday and Sunday they got all their travelers home in Greece.
– In 14 out of 20 return trips from Greece on Saturday, evacuation aircraft were deployed. Six planes were not allowed to travel – this corresponds to around 1000 of our passengers. On Monday, there are two planes with passengers who are not allowed to fly.
Found new trip home
Kristin Løland, who did not return home from Greece, goes on to say the following:
– Apollo thinks that if you give tourists 3-4 extra days they will be happy, but we have been here for 3 weeks and want to go home.
Rivera at Apollo says she understands the frustration.
– We would like to have a plan-b. We have aircraft operators who are constantly working to take our customers home. The problem is that there are no planes, and if there is a plane, there are no personnel.
– We do not want people to be longer than they have to. We cover board and lodging, and lose money.
Rivera says that the company has reached a point where the “worst case” is that they have to take travelers home by bus, but that this is “of course not something they want to expose their customers to”.
– When there have been critical incidents such as an ash cloud, this has not been a problem because we have had aircraft available. We point to SAS because we need people to take our customers home.
The couple has now given up traveling home with Apollo, and is on Tuesday afternoon on his way home with Norwegian.
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