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SAS

SAS doubles flights as it restarts Scandinavian and US routes

Airline SAS said on Wednesday it would resume flights on several domestic and international routes in June, over two months after the operator grounded most of its fleet over the new coronavirus' impact on travel.

SAS doubles flights as it restarts Scandinavian and US routes
Flight technicians pull the covers off an SAS jet at Oslo's Gardermoen airport. Håkon Mosvold Larsen / NTB Scanpix / AFP
“This primarily includes domestic flights within and between the Scandinavian countries, but flights to New York, Chicago and Amsterdam from Copenhagen are also set to resume,” SAS said in a statement.
 
In Sweden, SAS is adding four destinations from Arlanda; Malmö, Ängelholm, Kalmar and Skellefteå.
 
It is also resuming flights from Stockholm to Helsinki and Turku, in Finland.
 
In Norway, where SAS is already serving all domestic destinations, it will now be possible to fly from Bergen and Stavanger to Copenhagen and from Stavanger to Aberdeen.
 
From Copenhagen, SAS is resuming international flights to Amsterdam, New York and Chicago.
   
The Scandinavian airline announced in mid-March it was halting most of its traffic and furloughing around 90 percent of its staff.   
 
In late April the airline, whose two largest shareholders are the Swedish and Danish states, announced it was laying off about 5,000 people, representing 40 percent of the company's workforce.
 
READ ALSO: 
   
In early May the company secured a state-guaranteed credit line of 3.3 billion Swedish kronor ($344 million or 313 million euros) to help it navigate the impact of the new coronavirus.
   
Even with the resumption of some flights, the airline continues to operate at a reduced capacity, but the added routes means an effective doubling of the aircraft in use from 15 to 30, according to SAS.
   
Finnair, of Nordic neighbour Finland, announced early last week it would start resuming its long-haul flight to Asia in July.
 
Here are the new routes which will start from this coming Monday: 
 
From June 1st
 
ARN-SFT Stockholm – Skellefteå
 
From June 2nd
 
CPH-AAR Copenhagen – Aarhus
 
From June 8th
 
CPH-AMS Copenhagen – Amsterdam
CPH-BGO Copenhagen –  Bergen
CPH-SVG Copenhagen – Stavanger
SVG-ABZ Stavanger – Aberdeen
ARN-HEL Stockholm – Helsinki
ARN-TKU Stockholm – Turku
ARN-MMX Stockholm – Malmö
ARN-KLR Stockholm – Kalmar
 
From June 10th
 
CPH-EWR Copenhagen – New York
CPH-ORD Copenhagen – Chicago

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SAS

‘We agree to disagree’: Still no progress in marathon SAS strike talks

By lunchtime on Friday, talks between the Scandinavian airline SAS and unions representing striking pilots were still stuck on "difficult issues".

'We agree to disagree': Still no progress in marathon SAS strike talks

“We agree that we disagree,” Roger Klokset, from the Norwegian pilots’ union, said at lunchtime outside the headquarters of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise in Stockholm, where talks are taking place. “We are still working to find a solution, and so long as there is still some point in continuing negotiations, we will do that.” 

Mats Ruland, a mediator for the Norwegian government, said that there were “still several difficult issues which need to be solved”. 

At 1pm on Friday, the two sides took a short break from the talks for lunch, after starting at 9am. On Thursday, they negotiated for 15 hours, breaking off at 1am on Friday morning. 

READ ALSO: What’s the latest on the SAS plane strike?

Marianne Hernæs, SAS’s negotiator on Friday told journalists she was tired after sitting at the negotiating table long into the night. 

“We need to find a model where we can meet in the middle and which can ensure that we pull in the income that we are dependent on,” she said. 

Klokset said that there was “a good atmosphere” in the talks, and that the unions were sticking together to represent their members.

“I think we’ve been extremely flexible so far. It’s ‘out of this world’,’ said Henrik Thyregod, with the Danish pilots’ union. 

“This could have been solved back in December if SAS had not made unreasonable demands on the pilots,” Klokset added. 

The strike, which is now in its 12th day, has cost SAS up to 130m kronor a day, with 2,550 flights cancelled by Thursday, affecting 270,000 passengers. 

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