Airlines are obliged to replace those whose flights are more than three hours late or canceled at short notice.

In addition to the refund of the ticket and compensation for ancillary costs, you are entitled to between 250 and 600 euros in compensation.

That according to EU rules.

The Swedish Consumer Agency offers an e-service where passengers can calculate how much they are entitled to.

- There are usually around 100 people who visit it every day.

But when the SAS strike broke out, there were 2,275 visits, says Fredrik Selrot at the Swedish Consumer Agency.

When SAS was paralyzed by a pilot strike in 2019, the company did not want to pay compensation.

According to the rules, the company does not have to pay if the flight is canceled as a result of "extraordinary events", which can be bad weather, political unrest or in some cases strikes.

SAS was granted the right by the General Complaints Board, ARN, but later lost a lawsuit at EU level.

Therefore, the outcome at ARN may now be different.

- In 2019, these were legal issues that were not tried.

Since then, the European Court of Justice has said that compensation must be paid if it is a regular strike, says Marcus Isgren, Director General of ARN.

Does not take SAS cases

There are a plethora of companies that help passengers get their money from the airlines for a third of the compensation.

One of these companies is Flyghjälp, which has chosen not to take on new cases concerning SAS.

- It will be difficult to get compensation given SAS's financial situation, and then it will be difficult for us to prioritize the requirements.

I think it is better for passengers to apply for compensation directly from SAS in this situation.

It only takes 10 minutes, says the company's CEO Gustav Frederik Thybo.

No money has been set aside

SAS's press manager Karin Nyman tells SVT that the company will follow the existing rules.

But no money has been set aside.

- This is a strike that has arisen now.

Our absolute ambition was that this would not affect our customers.

Do you have any estimate of how much the compensation will cost?

- No, we can not speculate on that, she says.