Strikes grounds hundreds more Scandinavian Airlines flights

COPENHAGEN – Scandinavian Airlines says it will cancel another 504 flight departures across the Nordic region on Wednesday, affecting about 47,000 passengers, due to a pilots’ strike.

The cancellation comes on top of 546 flights cancelled Tuesday and hundreds more since pilots began an open-ended strike on Friday due to the collapse of pay negotiations.

CEO Rickard Gustafson says the pilots’ demands “entail significant cost increases for SAS that would threaten the company’s long-term competitiveness and consequently, the jobs of all SAS employees.”

Gustafson said Tuesday the airline was “prepared … to find a solution” in the talks on a new collective bargaining agreement. Those talks, he said, are in “a deadlock.”