Pilot strike cost SAS big on bottom line
The pilot strike that grounded thousands of SAS flights for a week in late April through early May was an expensive ordeal for the airline.
SAS revealed this morning that the strike, which impacted over 350,000 passengers, ended up costing 453 million kroner.
“The strike between 26 April and 2 May resulted in some 4,000 cancelled flights affecting more than 370,000 passengers. I apologise to all of our customers affected by the traffic disruptions during this extraordinary event,” said CEO Rickard Gustafson.
“The total impact on income before tax of the strike is estimated at 650 million Swedish krona, of which 430 million relates to the last five days of the second quarter.”
The strike compounded a tough start to the year for SAS, which unveiled a loss of 977 million kroner for the first half of its 2018-19 financial year.
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Fourth in the world
The airline did get some good news this month, as it was named among the best airlines in the world by passenger rights organisation Airhelp.
SAS was ranked fourth overall, behind leaders Qatar Airlines, American Airlines and AeroMexico, thanks to scoring high on punctuality, service quality and handling compensation claims.
Qantas, LATAM Airlines, WestJet, LuxAir, Austrian Airlines and Emirates completed the top 10, while budget airline Thomas Cook finished last just behind EasyJet, Kuwait Airways, Korean Air, RyanAir and Norwegian.
It is unknown how the recent pilot strike will impact SAS in the rankings next year.