STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -SAS and pilot unions were set to resume negotiations on Monday in an effort to end 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 conditions related to the carrier’s rescue plan collapsed. The parties returned to the negotiating table in the Swedish capital on July 13.
Mediator Claes Strath on Sunday evening told news agency TT that progress had been made over the weekend.
“If the will is there – and I know it is – then this will be able to be solved during the day tomorrow, but nothing is ready until it is ready,” Strath said.
Mediators were not immediately available for comment on Monday.
Talks had continued throughout the weekend. On Saturday a mediator said the parties had made progress but significant issues had yet to be resolved.
Long-struggling SAS needs to attract new investors and secure bridge financing, saying it must first slash costs to achieve those objectives.
Pilots employed in the 75-year-old carrier’s SAS Scandinaviasubsidiary said after talks collapsed that they would agree to limited wage cuts and less favourable terms, while SAS said the concessions offered were not enough for it to carry out a rescue plan announced in February.
Unions also demand that pilots axed during the COVID-19 pandemic are rehired at SAS Scandinavia rather than having to compete with external applicants for jobs on less attractive terms at recently created SAS Link and Ireland-based SAS Connect
For Monday, 183 SAS flights, or 57% of those scheduled, werecancelled, according to flight-tracking platform FlightAware.Pilots at SAS Link and SAS Connect are not on strike.
(Reporting by Anna RingstromEditing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and David Goodman)
