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Impact of strike: »Cancelled« advertisements for SAS flights at Stockholm Airport
Photo: Ali Lorestani/TT/EPA
In order to ensure supplies to the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen in the Arctic Ocean, the pilots of the airline SAS suspended their strike for a day.
On Monday, a plane will fly passengers and goods from the capital Oslo to Longyearbyen with a stop in the city of Tromsö, the head of the Norwegian SAS Pilots Association, Roger Klokset, told the newspaper "Verdens Gang".
Klokset said the people of Spitzbergen were particularly hard hit by the strike as most flights to the island are operated by SAS.
To ensure access to critical personnel and equipment, pilots would make an exception, Klokset said.
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Flight cancellations: Every day, tens of thousands of passengers are affected by the SAS pilots' strike
The pilots began their strike at the Scandinavian airline last Monday.
The company and the Swedish, Norwegian and Danish pilots have been negotiating a collective agreement for weeks.
The Swedish Pilots' Association accuses the company of using the pandemic to fire almost half of the pilots with an agreed right to reinstatement, but overruling that right.
Stranded passengers switch to the ship
After just a few days, the pilots had announced an exception to bring stranded vacationers home.
80 flights were planned for the weekend alone.
On Sunday, however, they declared the aid to be over.
The SAS pilots' association said it had learned that there were enough flights for the holidaymakers concerned, for example to Rhodes, Crete, Larnaca, Palma de Mallorca and Split.
From there, there are plenty of alternative travel options.
However, the agreed exception should only apply to more remote destinations from which there is no alternative return journey.
Some SAS passengers stranded on Svalbard are now cruising home instead.
Tui Cruises has taken several passengers who were stranded on the island because of the pilots' strike on board the cruise ship "Mein Schiff 3".
Around 120 people accepted the offer of a cabin on the ship, the shipping company said.
The ship was due to start south on Sunday evening.
The shipping company has not yet been able to say to what extent the costs will be covered by SAS.
him/dpa