the810

It certainly doesn't but it would mean SAS will lose the monopoly on routes between Norwegian regional destinations and mainland Europe. These days if you want to fly to/from many regional airports, you have to connect to SAS as Widerøe doesn't really codeshare with anyone else.

This cooperation with Norwegian would be a major blow to SAS' strategy of being expensive low-cost leisure airline as it deeply relies on that monopoly.

steve harrington

Well, the management must wake up, because it seems that everything is always the fault of others, even a dying airline like norwegian can eat the toast in some sectors.

It certainly makes me sad, to think how SAS has been going downhill for about 15 years, when it came to be considered the best airline in the world, and could argue face to face with current giants like LH, AF or IB, a shame.

steve harrington

ever since the planes were painted gray and the pilots' stripes became silver and left behind the gold, everything has gone from bad to worse haha, just kidding guys, a bit of humor

tr3k

I have not flown any of the IB group or AF in a long time (AF is on my personal blacklist, because it's not nice to crash perfectly good A330s in the middle of the ocean for no apparent reason, and there just isn't service nice enough to make up for that).

But LH - the entire group - is awful. I am sure if judged by the business profits, they are the greatest thing ever. But as an airline - service to their passengers - they are the pits. Hard avoid (even Swiss now, which was once one of my favorites). So, I don't know if that is really the standard you want to measure SK against.

tr3k

My crystal ball suggests that a few more weeks of this strike, and there will be none. Scandinavians will just have to learn to love DY. On the up side, those pilots will get to work for an employer that values them then, for sure.

ksu

The cooperation between SK and WF has dwindled out in the recent years. SK doesn't sell WF-only tickets anymore, and the SAS business agreement doesn't include WF anymore. DY and WF actually have interlined for several years, but only on connections to/from WF's PSO-routes. And WF has a ticket/interline arrangement in place with AY, KL and (I think) AF. So the SAS monopoly on the routes mentioned has been lost already.

I think that this new agreement DY/WF comes now for two reasons. WF wants to distance itself from SK due to the PR disaster that is the current strike (and the intemperate public handling of the strike by the SAS CEO), and resentment due to the unilateral decision by SAS to stop EB earning on any WF route that was also served by SAS. That came as a huge surprise in early May, and appeared very hostile.

GUWonder

DY and WF may have done this move to show the Norwegian government and public at large that they don’t need SAS anymore like they did before.

If SAS assets and resources hit the market — and weren’t to be sheltered extensively by asset laundering in the US with US Chapter 11 bankruptcy — Norway could perhaps finance a beefed up Norwegian to pick up the best of what is left from SAS’s demise.

ksu

There is also a new actor: Flyr, started by the Braathens family. My back-up reservation if I cannot go by SAS in a couple of weeks is on them. They even have announced that the will start flying to KSU - the one SK mainline airport, not served by DY!

FlyingMoose

Is it a PR disaster for SK or for the unions? As a consumer, my appreciation for SK has gone up because of their stance in this conflict which has been overdue for 2 decades. I can only applaud the current CEO especially when compared to the previous Swedish clowns. What does Norwegian give Norwegians other than a shittier equivalent product, no major alliance and no long haul routes? The alternative in Norway in my experience for SK would be BA/KL for international travel.

ksu

For SK, undoubtedly.

SK shows themselves to be unreliable during vacation season, ruining peoples vacation. And an arrogant CEO loses his temper in front of TV-cameras and uses stong invectives against the pilots - showing that he hasn't the balance and calmness expected from him. This is combined with the extremely high (for Scandinavia) renumeration he looted from Avianca, after cutting staff and salaries, and the high salary he gets from SAS. You might appreciate his American-style no-nonsense attitude to workplace relations, but it doesn't go down well with the Scandinavian public.

I don't follow Swedish or Danish media that closely, but polls have shown that the sympathy from the Norwegian public goes to the pilots. The pilots' narrative is that they have accepted huge cuts in salary (5% decrease, every one else gets 4,7% increase, flight mechanics demanded 18% increase), worse working conditions (more weekends, more work in summer, less in winter), accepting no right to strike for 6 (or 8) years. Their one demand was the right to remain employed in mainline SAS and keep seniority. They also claim that SAS kept on moving the goal posts whenever they gave concessions in the negotiations. The interesting fact is that this narrative for the main part has not really been contradicted by SAS. As the average Norwegian is a salaried employee himself, and being a member of a union, this resonates well with him.

Newspaper commentators (still important here) clearly side with the pilots. Anko van der Werff is now seen as a huge liability for SAS.

CPH-Flyer

I guess in Denmark it will also depend on the specific media you get your news feed from, but I would say that it is more even handed, though public sentiment does seem more slanted against the pilots.

I can't help but laugh that the Norwegians see a six year agreement not as a framework and conditions set for six years, but as giving up the right to strike for 6 years. Talk about seeing the glass as half empty, or maybe even going out drinking half of the glass and then stating that it is half empty.

ksu

Norwegian agreements are usually two years. The SAS pilots' agreement has been uncommon as it has been for three years. Do remember that SAS in Norway is seen as a Norwegian airline, flying domestically (it's a huge operation) and flying Norwegians abroad. It thus is no problem in convincing the public that SAS should be run as any other local company when it comes to workers' rights.

GUWonder

PR disaster or not for one or the other, it’s flying SAS that comes across as being unreliable; and it’s SAS that is seen as being a less than ideal place to park the travel money for those people who don’t want to see their travel plans scuppered because of SAS flight cancellations.

Ironically, it’s this strike that is making some more people consider the likes of Wizzair, Ryanair etc. That’s neither good for SAS employees, nor good for most of its non-governmental shareholders, nor good for those who want back “the businessman's airline” level of service. Who is it good for?

CPH-Flyer

Yeah, I understand that two years is the norm. But going beyond two years is still about creating a longer term framework and stability in my view. In the pilots view it is all about loosing the right to strike. Showing yes, they have a strike culture IMHO.

CPH-Flyer

It is not good for anyone.

I see two outcomes

1. The result will be basically what they supposedly was very close to agreeing Saturday, and both sides will not be able to understand why the other side did not accept it then.

2. There will be an agreement and both sides will claim they got most of what they asked for Saturday but could not get then, still some disadvantages remain, but overall both sides will claim to have gotten the better deal.

And we will all scratch our heads and wonder what the strike actually was needed for. A question we will probably never get a true answer to. But hopefully the pain is over soon.