SAS "to sack pilots"

Talks on settlement "fail"

SAS is to sack 100 pilots after talks to reach agreement on a cost cutting programme failed.

Sture Stölen, vp head of investor relations at the Scandinavian airline, told Reuters news agency that talks with the pilots' union had not reached a conclusion.

The news agency quoted him as saying: "We were in talks with the pilots and the negotiations were not successful."

He said that staff cuts were part of the carrier's cost cutting programme and these would now be enforced "as soon as possible."

SAS, which is jointly owned by the governments of Sweden, Norway and Denmark, said early in November that talks with the airline's trades unions had resulted in savings of MSEK130 (€12.4m) through changes to working agreements.

But it said it had not reached agreement with three pilot unions or with the union representing Danish cabin crew.

It accused the unions of making demands which the airline could not accept.

SAS said that despite the savings it was "still at a cost disadvantage".

It said the aim of the talks was to save MSEK5.3m (€506.5m).

After announcing in August a Q2 2009 net loss of SEK1.05bn (€102m), almost twice the SEK422m (€41m) loss it suffered in Q2 2008, in August, the airline said it was seeking to reduce its payroll by up to 20%.

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