Pilot strike strands 72,000 passengers across Scandinavia

Pilots at Scandinavian carrier SAS walked off the job in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway on Friday, stranding more than 72,000 travelers as 673 flights were canceled, the airline said.

A total of 1,409 pilots were on strike, affecting domestic, European, and long-haul flights, SAS said, predicting that 170,000 passengers would be affected through Sunday.

The Swedish Air Line Pilots Association, which initiated the strike, said months of negotiations had failed to find a solution to the pilots' "deteriorating work conditions, unpredictable work schedules and job insecurity."

The Swedish Confederation of Transport Enterprises, meanwhile, said it could not accept the 13-percent wage increase demanded by the pilots, given their "already high average wage of 93,000 kronor (8,766 euros, 9,769 dollars) a month."

The pilots' association said work schedules, and not wages, were the main focus of the negotiations, as most SAS pilots have to work at variable times and days.

"Many SAS pilots have no control over when and how long they have to work. In a worst-case scenario, they risk having to work seven weekends in a row," the pilots' association said in a statement.

"Everyone who has a family life can imagine how difficult it is to not know when you have to work," SAS' Swedish union representative at the pilots' association, Wilhelm Tersmeden, said.

SAS contacted most passengers before the cancellations to warn them of the strike and offered to rebook them at no extra cost.

On Friday, many travelers turned up at Stockholm's Arlanda airport in the hopes of getting on other flights.

SS