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Soaring air traffic as Swedes seek out sun

Disappointing summer weather on the home front while most of Europe was enjoying a heatwave led to a rise in Swedes flying abroad in search of sun and warmth, according to figures released on Friday.

Published: 7 August 2015 14:17 CEST
Soaring air traffic as Swedes seek out sun
Tourists in Stockholm. Photo: Christine Olsson/TT

Despite warm weather predicted to move in across Sweden this weekend, the wettest May in several decades and a rainier summer than normal have prompted many Swedes to seek out warmer climes.

Almost 3.4 million people travelled to or from one of the ten hubs run by Sweden's state-owned airport operator Swedavia in the month of July. That is an increase by nine percent – or 275,000 travellers in real terms – compared to the same period last year.

“A contributing factor is obviously the bad weather. People have started to go abroad to find some of the much-needed sun after a tough winter season,” press spokeswoman Charlotte Periasamy told Swedish Radio on Friday.

READ ALSO: Tentative promise of summer's return to Sweden

The number of trips abroad soared by ten percent compared to July last year, with around 2.5 million jetting off in search of summer sunshine. In total traffic across Sweden's borders has increased by seven percent in the first seven months of the year.

Friday's figures follow reports from travel companies last month saying that bookings have soared as a result of Swedes' desire to get to warmer regions.

In other high-flying news, low-cost airline Norwegian's passenger numbers soared past those of its Scandinavian competitor SAS for the first time. A total of 2.59 million people travelled with SAS in July compared to 2.69 million Norwegian passengers.

“This is an expression of the fact that the holiday season is more of a top season for the low-cost airlines,” Jacob Pedersen, an analyst for Danish banking giant Sydbank, told Danish newswire Ritzau.

“If we look ahead a month or two SAS will have more passengers yet again,” he added.


Foreign tourists in Stockholm. Photo: Linus Sundahl-Djerf/SvD/TT

Meanwhile, as Swedes were fleeing the country, tourists from abroad came pouring in. Foreign visitors spent a total of 1.6 million nights in hotels across Sweden in June, a rise of 6.2 percent compared to the same month last year, according to Dagens Industri.

“It's going to be another top year,” predicted Björn Arnek, economist at Visita, in an interview with the financial newspaper.

READ ALSO: The Local's ultimate guide to travel in Sweden

Record numbers of foreign tourists were already expected to head to Sweden in their camper vans and mobile homes this summer.

And as of Friday their road trips are set to get a little bit cheaper. In the morning leading petrol companies announced they were cutting the price of a litre of unleaded petrol to 13.94 kronor ($1.59).

Diesel and etanol remained at 12.75 and 10.83 kronor per litre, respectively.

Around 160,000 people worked in Sweden's tourist industry in 2014. Foreign visitors spent around 96 billion kronor in the Nordic country in the same year.

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.

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