Scandinavia’s SAS Airlines Cancels 75% of its Friday Schedule

A few days after SAS Airlines filed for bankruptcy in the U.S., the carrier again made major cuts to its flight schedule.

SAS on Friday canceled 202 flights on Friday, close to 75% of its total schedule, because of staffing issues stemming from the ongoing strike from its pilot union that started on Monday. Those issues have forced SAS to cancel flights all week, including 71% of its total schedule on Thursday and 76% of its total schedule on Wednesday.

There has not been a lot of movement between the pilots’ union and the airline. However, the chairman of the union told a Norwegian news agency this week that pilots had agreed to fly empty aircraft to bring passengers back who have been stranded with the recent cancellations. Some passengers, according to reports, have found it difficult to find alternative transportation in some destinations.

Those passengers, however, will mostly not be landing at Copenhagen Airport, one of the carrier’s hubs, because flight mechanics there are striking in sympathy with the SAS pilots. The flights will instead mostly land at Stockholm and Oslo airports.

SAS is just one of many airlines canceling large swaths of flights each day.

British Airways recently announced that it was cutting 13% of its total schedule through October because of staffing issues and strikes by workers’ unions.

Lufthansa, one of the largest airlines in the world by almost every metric, also announced plans this week to cut more summer flights. The carrier’s staff recently called on the airline to stop its cost-cutting, including staff cuts, in order to deal with not just the increase in demand among consumers, but reports of aggression from customers, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.

The carrier’s staffing issues got bad enough for its CEO to apologize to employees and customers late last month for “mistakes” made when cutting costs during the COVID-19 pandemic. It continues to try to recruit new staff, particularly in Europe, to solve those issues; however, those plans won’t make an impact until later this year.