Copenhagen — A pilots' strike at Scandinavian Airlines was postponed at the last moment to allow the sides to continue negotiations for another 72 hours, the carrier and unions said.
The Swedish pilots' association said the strike that was originally set to begin on Wednesday would now start on Saturday unless mediation efforts succeed.
About 900 pilots with Scandinavian Airlines, also known as SAS, had been set to walk off the job as of midnight in a dispute over pay and benefits. Instead, a delay was announced late Tuesday.
The chairman of the SAS pilots' group, Martin Lindgren, said a strike could only be avoided if the airline demonstrated real willingness to meet the demands of their pilots.
SAS management the pilots have been negotiating a collective agreement for weeks. The Swedish pilots' union accuses the company of, among other things, taking advantage of the pandemic to lay off nearly half of its pilots and then not honouring agreements on re-employment rights.
In the event of a strike, hundreds of flights are expected to be cancelled daily in Scandinavia, most of them at Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm-Arlanda airports. SAS said this could affect some 20,000 to 30,000 passengers a day.
The last pilot strike at SAS in 2019 lasted just over seven days. Almost 4,000 flights in Denmark, Sweden and Norway were suspended at the time. A total of 360,000 travellers were affected.
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