Believes half of SAS cancellations are due to poor staffing – NRK Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
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During the first three weeks of November, SAS canceled more than 300 flights.
According to leader Yngve Karlsen of the Norwegian Pilots’ Association, about half of these poor crews are due.
– It is clear that when this can be directly linked to the lack of crew and that our members have not been reassigned, then this is very negative, he says to NRK.
October’s traffic figures for SAS show that the company had more than 130 percent more passengers then, than the same period the year before.
The members of the Norwegian Pilots’ Association who have kept their jobs notice that the requests to work overtime and on holidays are many, says Karlsen. At the same time, cancellations have increased compared to before.
The corona pandemic hit the air industry particularly hard, with closed borders and little air traffic. But since the world reopened, air traffic has skyrocketed.
Believes SAS must bring the pilots back
A solution to the problem, he believes, would be to re-employ those who have lost their jobs at SAS during the pandemic. SAS should have done that a long time ago, he believes. This autumn, there has been a storm around SAS and the company’s former employees.
Several of those who lost their jobs as pilots in SAS believe that the airline has put obstacles in their way back to the job they had before, and that they believe they were promised that they would get it back.
Among the issues is that SAS has established new companies that want to work as the dismissed pilots believe they are entitled to get back. SAS has denied that they promised to give anyone a job back.
– But can not those who are now unemployed apply for jobs in the new companies?
– They have probably also done so to a large extent. The problem is that many receive the application in return, Karlsen claims.
He says the Norwegian Pilots’ Association is currently considering whether to go to court to get back the jobs that the pilots believe they have been promised.
– That’s not the world
SAS’s press manager John Eckhoff confirms that the company had to cancel many flights in November. The reason, however, he claims is more complex than low staffing.
Eckhoff highlights technical challenges with some of SAS’s aircraft, a challenging traffic program, and high sickness absence, as reasons why the cancellation rate is high.
– That is what leads to us having challenges. The most important thing is that this affects the passengers who are going from A to B, and we try to minimize the inconvenience for them, Eckhoff says to NRK.
He says SAS wants to re-employ someone to have more pilots and cabin crew behind them, in order to overcome the sickness absence problem. In addition, I want to improve the system. But hiring all those who lost their jobs in the pandemic, he thinks is irrelevant.
– We want to get all our former and valued employees back into the company. But that’s not the world, says Eckhoff.