STOCKHOLM / OSLO (VG) Negotiations continue on Friday after SAS and the pilots have not yet agreed.
Just updated
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On Thursday at 09.00, the SAS pilots and the SAS management continued the negotiations.
On Thursday, the parties sat for 9.5 hours. On Friday, they were in the negotiating room until just before 01.00.
Even now they have not reached an agreement, the leader of the Danish pilot association, Henrik Thyregod, informs the press outside Næringslivets hus in Stockholm.
– We all have a desire to implement, he says.
Ombudsman Mats Wilhelm Ruland states that there are several unanswered questions:
– It is a very complicated mediation. There are three countries, four different associations, he says.
– It is difficult to solve this, he says and emphasizes that it is extremely important to come to a solution.
– I have probably not come across a mediation that has taken as long as this one, says national mediator Mats Wilhelm Ruland to the press after the negotiations on Friday night.
When asked if the parties are now closer to each other, he says:
– The parties are closer to each other than they have ever been.
Negotiation manager for SAS, Marianne Hernæs, says that the negotiations have gone back and forth a bit:
– Now we have gone back a little more, she says.
She elaborates that they were tired and weary and found that it was best to give up for the day.
The parties will meet again on Friday morning.
The parties met on Wednesday at the negotiating table in Næringslivets hus in Stockholm for the first time since 900 pilots went on strike on Monday last week.
The head of negotiations for SAS, Marianne Hærnes, stated earlier in the day that she must take the time they need to get a common understanding:
– We are some distance from the goal, of course, but we are working on, she said then.
A little less than an hour later, on his way to start the negotiation again, Hernæs spoke to the press again:
– There is movement from both parties, she said then.
The parties did not move enough to reach an agreement on Thursday night.
Optimism in advance
At the beginning of today’s negotiation meeting, several parties were optimistic:
– I am always optimistic, said Jan Levi Skogvang, leader of SAS Norway’s pilot association in Parat.
The same was said by national mediator Mats Ruland:
– We will do everything we can to reach the goal, and we hope for a solution, he said.
Marianne Hernæs was also in good spirits on her way to Næringslivets hus:
– Is the negotiation leader must always be optimistic, she said then.
Flight analyst: – Friday at the latest
Aviation analyst Hans Jørgen Elnæs told VG that he thinks the parties can reach an agreement no later than Friday.
– I have got the impression of what the pilot associations have said here now that they have obviously received a package from SAS when the meeting starts on Wednesday, which it is possible to negotiate an agreement on. It can happen today and most likely we have it in place by Friday at the latest, he says.
–Store tap
On Thursday, 169 flights to and from Norway were canceled, according to VG’s overview SAS is responsible for all these flights.
It is enormously expensive for the company:
The pilot strike in SAS has so far cost the company up to 1.3 billion Swedish kroner, which is equivalent to around 1.27 billion Norwegian kroner.
SAS itself has estimated that they will lose NOK 100-130 million a day as a result of the strike.
Since the strike began on July 4, more than 2,550 flights have been canceled, which has affected more than 270,000 passengers, SAS said in a press release on Thursday.
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