STOCKHOLM Reuters -- Wage talks between Scandinavian airline SAS and its pilots collapsed on Monday, the chief executive of the airline told reporters, causing a strike that will affect large parts of the embattled carrier's operations.
This is very bad news, said Anko van der Werff, CEO of SAS.
Nearly 1,000 pilots in Denmark, Sweden and Norway are expected to join the strike, according to the unions, which said that the strike could leave 30,000 passengers stranded each day.
There are thousands of cancellations across the flight schedule and thousands of people affected by the strike, according to a statement issued by SAS. It said a strike at this point is devastating for SAS and puts the company's future together with the jobs of thousands of colleagues at stake.
The strike comes at a difficult time for loss-making SAS as it tries to restructure its business by taking large cost cuts, raising new cash and converting debt to equity as part of a plan to rescue the carrier from collapse.
The strike is expected to result in the cancellation of 50% of all scheduled SAS flights and impact around 30,000 passengers per day, according to SAS. The number could be as high as 45,000, according to the unions.
Last month, the airline averaged 58,000 passengers per day and serves destinations in Europe, Asia and the United States.