SAS Pilot Group says they will have to end the exemption for charter flights after the last flight on Sunday. They accuse SAS of lack of respect for agreements.
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SAS opened Thursday to make an exception to the strike and bring home stranded foreign travelers.
This weekend, 80 flights from Scandinavia were planned.
But in a press release from the SAS pilots, they are anything but satisfied with SAS ‘handling of the charter dispensation.
– SPG has agreed that SAS can operate a limited number of flights to destinations where there are few or no alternatives for return travel. During the weekend, we have therefore to our great surprise seen that many flights have been set up to popular and busy holiday destinations such as Rhodes, Crete, Larnaca, Palma and Split – where there is an alternative mode of travel, writes SAS Pilot Group in the press release.
SAS Pilot Group also writes that SAS began calling crews for flights before an agreement was reached with the pilot group, but that despite this they chose to let the flights go this weekend.
– We think it is unfortunate that SAS is once again unable to practice an agreement in line with its intentions.
Due to this, the pilot group says that they feel compelled to end the charter dispensation after the last flight of the day.
– Lack of respect for agreements also contributes to making it more difficult for SPG to grant this type of exemption in the future.
SAS Pilot Group is an association of pilot associations in Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
Just before the latest development, the Norwegian SAS pilots’ leader Roger Klokset announced that the pilots grants dispensation for one flight to and from Svalbard.
Has your flight been canceled? You are entitled to this:
SAS strikes back
– We have worked around the clock the last week to get stranded passengers home, and have in no way shown a lack of respect for the pilot association or anyone else in this work, says press manager at SAS, Tonje Sund to VG.
In a statement, she says that the pilot association first refused to grant dispensation before they finally said yes. According to SAS, this must have meant that the entire process and work was further complicated and delayed.
– SAS does not share the view that it is easy to find alternative home trips to the destinations that the pilot association mentions in its press release. The whole of Europe is in the middle of an extremely challenging summer with a lack of capacity, which makes it very difficult to rebook passengers to other airlines, she explains.
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