Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

SAS

Sweden cancels flights due to Iceland ash cloud

Around 20 flights to and from Gothenburg's Landvetter airport have been cancelled due to ash from Iceland's Grimsvötn volcano, which swept into Sweden on Tuesday night.

Published: 24 May 2011 21:10 CEST
Sweden cancels flights due to Iceland ash cloud

Both domestic and foreign routes scheduled for Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning will be affected, according to TV4 news in Gothenburg.

According to the latest forecasts, the ash cloud is set to reach parts of southwestern Sweden on Tuesday evening and spread further toward the northeast during the night and into Wednesday morning.

“A high concentration of ash is going to create a swath between Landvetter and just south of (Stockholm airport) Arlanda at 2am tonight. No planes will be allowed to fly there,” Lars-Eric Blad of the Swedish Transport Agency (Transportstyrelsen) told the TT news agency.

As the flight ban will likely be limited to the nighttime hours, the only flights expected to be affected are postal flights and other air traffic to and from Landvetter.

For the time being, Arlanda is outside the restricted zone.

Airport operator Swedavia, which operates 11 airports in Sweden including Landvetter, said on its website Tuesday night that additional cancellations could occur at other airports run by the company.

“We encourage travelers to keep themselves updated on the situation and contact their airlines regarding information about their own trips,” said Swedavia.

The Transport Agency decided on Monday that restrictions would be put in place as soon as the ash cloud reached Sweden.

The restrictions have three levels: low, medium-high, and high concentrations of ash.

Scandinavian airline SAS said it has only been marginally affected by the ash cloud, but several flights from Norway and Copenhagen to Scotland have been cancelled.

“In Sweden, the effects are the same today as they were on Monday. Flights from Stockholm to the United States have a somewhat longer route,” SAS spokesperson Malin Selander told TT.

SAS requested and was granted permission in Norway to fly in so-called “gray ash zones” with medium-high concentrations of ash.

The company expects to be able to maintain more or less normal air traffic during the evening, according to Norwegian news agency NTB.

SAS also received permission to fly in areas over Sweden and Denmark with medium-high ash concentration, according to the decision.

Tour operators have also only been slightly affected so far.

On Tuesday night, a Fritidsresor flight from Las Palmas scheduled to land at Landvetter was redirected to Malmö instead.

“We can’t forget that today there is a totally different readiness within the airline industry to be able to fly, even when there is ash,” said Lottie Knutsson, a spokesperson with Fritidsresor.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

Published: 26 March 2024 09:55 CET
German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of €420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of €2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some €200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of €2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

SHOW COMMENTS