NEWS ANALYSIS: Millions have been spent on lawyers’ fees, consultants, executive pay and other costs tied to Scandinavian Airlines (SAS)’ emergence from bankruptcy protection, while Norwegian flight attendants claim they haven’t had a raise for 12 years and work longer days than ever. On Friday they went on strike, in a move that can ground SAS flights just as the airline is trying to return to profitability.
“Enough is enough,” said union boss Dag-Eina Sivertsen of the Norwegian labour federation Fellesforbundet. It represents 115 flight attendants who claim they earn between 15-30 percent less than their counterparts at Norwegian Air and receive no extra pay for evening, nighttime or weekend shifts. Several have complained, most recently on Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK)’ national newscast, that they often work more than 10 hours a day and rarely get more than two days off in a row. They’ve also had to take on new tasks, including cleaning the aircraft and emptying garbage after a flight.
Sivertsen stated that cabin personnel on SAS flights have put forward “a reasonable demand for two free weekends a month, in order to maintain the minimum of a social life outside work, and at least one daily meal break away from standing in the line of passengers waiting to use the aircraft’s toilet.”
Starting monthly pay for a new SAS flight attendant, according to their union SAS Norge Kabinforening (SNK), amounts to NOK 27,500 (USD 2,750) before tax and most earn less than NOK 40,000. That amounts to less than NOK 500,000 a year, well below Norway’s average monthly salary of nearly NOK 700,000.
In June, Norwegian regulators at the aviation authority Luftfartstilsynet urged SAS to take “considerable steps” to improve a poor working environment and long days for employees. SAS pilots (who went on strike themselves in 2022) were as frustrated as the flight attendants, charging that SAS management was pushing the limits of state labour regulations.
News service E24 reported that regulators found several problems with SAS’ Norwegian operations, including failure to address employee grievances and workdays averaging more than nine hours a day and 40 hours a week. They also detected differences in how union members and non-members were treated. The leader of the pilots’ organization, Roger Klokset, called the report “embarrassing” for SAS management. Management, meanwhile, accused SAS employees of carrying out various work slowdowns or other actions that forced flight cancellations and delays.
SAS has reported higher revenues this year and that it earned money in May for the first time in 2024, and again in June. News bureau Ritzau reported that SAS otherwise had lost nearly SEK 3.4 billion between November 2023 and June this year, but that its financial picture was improving as the airline headed into the busy summer season.
The Norwegian flight attendants’ strike can affect SAS flights througout its network, but had only grounded two (between Oslo and Trondheim) as of Friday morning. As more cabin personnel go on strike after landings, however, more flights can be affected, especially from Saturday.
Mediation involving state mediator Mats Ruland this week failed to avert the strike, with Ruland determining that the two sides (the flight attendants unions that also include Parat and NHO Luftfart, which negotiates on behalf of SAS management) were too far apart. Erik Lahnstein, managing director of NHO Luftfart, told NRK that SAS had “stretched itself” in an effort to meet the flight attendants’ demands regarding both pay and work schedules, and still claimed that “the goal is to get out of this conflict as quickly as possible.” SAS, like most other airlines, is under pressure to keep costs down.
The strike thus comes at what airline analysts including Jacob Pedersen at Sydbank called “a terrible point in time.” He noted how SAS has just come under new ownership and is now on the verge of emerging from more than two years of “exhausting” reorganization and protection from bankruptcy (filed in the US in 2022). The process has cost billions in terms of lost stock value for former owners including the Norwegian state and all the fees demanded by Scandinavian- and US law firms and consultants involved. Newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN) reported last year that SAS chief executive Anko van der Werff is earning around SEK 12.5 million a year for his efforts to rescue SAS, plus pension benefits.
Passengers have also been paying much higher airfares than they did before the Covid crisis shut down air travel entirely and now some are concerned about the future of their frequent flyer benefits. SAS’ Eurobonus program for frequent flyers will be replaced by SkyTeam, the program for KLM and Air France, which are among the new owners. Lufthansa, which formerly cooperated with SAS through the StarAlliance program, has been trying to lure SAS customers away by offering gold cards to current Eurobonus gold card members.
Meanwhile, Norwegian flight attendants want liveable wages in high-cost Norway and can’t understand SAS management’s priorities when it comes to where it’s willing to spend money. The flight attendants feel badly treated, and they’re SAS’ primary face in meeting the public.
Lahnstein, representing management in the negotiations, wouldn’t comment on the distance between the two sides. Sivertsen did: “If this is what they mean about stretching themselves, we’re looking at difficult days ahead for Norwegian aviation.”
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund
