A strike by airline pilots across Scandinavia is set to erode profits at SAS AB as investors and passengers await news of a breakthrough in labor talks. Since starting late last week, the strike already looks set to cause almost 3,000 cancellations, affecting about 280,000 passengers. SAS on Monday said the development is having a “very negative effect on our customers and the business.” SAS and the pilot unions are trying to reach an agreement on pay levels and working hours. While the Stockholm-based airline company says it’s still too early to provide an estimate of the cost, analysts have started to do the math. Per Hansen, an investment economist at Nordnet in Copenhagen, says the five days of strikes through Tuesday alone will cost SAS about 500 million kronor ($53m), with no guarantee that the pilots will return to work any time soon. “On top of costs toward compensation, the loss of income from tickets and wage costs for all personnel groups aside from the pilots, SAS is also missing out massively on new ticket sales over the coming one to two weeks,” Hansen said. “No one wants to order a ticket that might end up not being worth anything and where there’s a risk of having to pay more to re-book.” <br/>
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Colombia's Avianca Holdings said Monday it is experiencing "reputational harm" from its association with Avianca Brasil, an air carrier that licenses its name and has cancelled over 1,000 flights amid a bankruptcy restructuring. Both Aviancas belong to the same family-owned business group, led by brothers German and Jose Efromovich, but are maintained as separate companies. Bogota-based Avianca Holdings is the larger, better-known airline and licenses its brand for free to two smaller airlines owned by the Efromovich brothers, one in Brazil and one in Argentina. The disclosures were made by Avianca Holdings in its annual report filed with the US Securities Exchange Commission on Monday. It added in the filing that association with the Argentine and Brazilian carriers "could generally result in an overall decrease in customer confidence, any of which could lead to a significant loss of business." Avianca Holdings and Avianca Brasil had been planning a merger but it was abruptly canceled when the Brazilian airline filed for bankruptcy in December, crippled by high fuel and leasing payments.<br/>
United is covering up all the cameras on the back of customers' seats amid backlash about privacy. "As with many other airlines, some of our premium seats have in-flight entertainment systems that came with cameras installed by the manufacturer," a United spokeswoman said. "None of these cameras were ever activated, and we had no plans to use them in the future; however, we took the additional step to cover the cameras. The cameras are a standard feature that manufacturers of the system included for possible future purposes such as video conferencing." Many airlines have said they have seat-back cameras, though several, including United, said in March they didn't intend to use the technology. American Airlines, for example, said that manufacturers of in-flight entertainment systems have "included cameras for possible future uses such as seat-to-seat video conferencing," adding that the camera technology has "never been activated." A passenger on a Singapore Airlines flight called attention to the cameras on his seat-back entertainment system, which sparked a debate over passengers' privacy concerns. <br/>