SAS pilot strike ends as agreement reached

The Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) pilot strike has ended after an agreement was reached late on Thursday night. All flights in Sweden, Denmark and Norway will resume as soon as possible, Swedish News SVT reported on Friday.

"It is with relief I now conclude that our customers soon will be flying again and that we will be able to pursue our commitment to travelers to, from and within Scandinavia," Rickard Gustafson, president and CEO of SAS, wrote in a press release issued by SAS shortly before midnight on Thursday.

The strike lasted for a week, resulting in 4,015 cancelled flights and affecting approximately 360,000 passengers.

SAS has been hit hard financially by the strike, with SVT reporting that it cost the airline an estimated 60-80 million Swedish krona a day. Gustafson told SVT on Friday that it is too early to calculate the total cost.

"I have to admit there is a great deal of talk about it," Gustafson said. "But I want to wait for an exact amount, because we have not yet been able to calculate everything."

According to Gustafson, SAS has no plans to raise airfares to cover losses incurred during the strike.

"It is clear that I would have preferred to use this money to invest in our future than to burn it up in a conflict," Gustafson told SVT. "But now we have ended up here and I deeply regret that we ended up in a conflict."

After over 30 hours of negotiations between SAS and the Swedish Air Line Pilots Association, a new three-year collective bargaining agreement is in place. The new agreement concerns predictability of scheduling, job security and salaries. In the press release issued on Thursday, SAS said the terms are "on par with the industrial benchmark for the Swedish labor market."