Negotiations took place over the weekend between SAS Scandinavia's pilot associations and SAS.
The deadline was set for Monday at 12.00 (Swedish time).
At 12.20 on Monday, SAS CEO Anko van der Werff announced:
- This is really, really bad news.
We are devastated, he says to the media gathered outside.
This involves between 200 and 250 aircraft daily, which means that the number of canceled flights will be even more.
Up to 30,000 passengers are affected globally every day.
The strike is expected to lead to the cancellation of approximately 50% of all SAS flights.
The flights operated by SAS Link, SAS Connect and SAS's external partners are not affected by the strike, SAS states in its press release.
- It is bad for investors.
We are talking about 8,000 jobs, said SAS CEO Anko van der Werff.
He continues:
They (the pilots) are holding the company hostage.
We were not the ones who issued the notice.
We have seen the pilots leave (the negotiations) twice.
Notice last week
The strike was supposed to have broken out on Wednesday last week (June 29), but the deadline was moved to Saturday and then once again, to Monday at lunch.
SAS states that information about canceled flights has been posted on the company's website, they are marked "Probably canceled if the strike occurs".
SAS offers rebooking of flights that may be affected.
The stock plummeted
About half an hour after the strike announcement, the SAS share had plummeted by just over 8 percent and then cost 60 öre.