star

SAS could face an extra 1.2b crowns ($140m) in costs for a strike in 2019 after a European court said on Tuesday that industrial action did not absolve the airline from its duty to compensate affected customers. The Swedish-Danish airline cancelled around 4,000 flights in 2019 as pilots went on strike, disrupting the travel plans of 370,000 customers and costing the company over 600m crowns ($70.1m). The European Court of Justice said in a judgement that a strike organised by staff at an air carrier does not fall within the concept of an extraordinary circumstance, which would be grounds for releasing the airline from its obligation to pay compensation for cancellations or long delays. SAS said the decision was “very unexpected and unfortunate”. “SAS fears that the decision will have serious and far-reaching economic and labour-law related consequences, not only for SAS, but for all airlines all over Europe,” the company said.<br/>

Air Canada says it will restore some service along routes to Jamaica, Mexico and Barbados beginning in early May after Canadian airlines suspended all flights to sun destinations in January at the request of the federal government. Air Canada will operate three flights per week from Toronto to Mexico City starting May 3, and one flight per week from Toronto to Kingston, Jamaica and Bridgetown, Barbados beginning May 5 and May 9, respectively. The suspension on flights to sun destinations was intended to last until April 30. Air Canada said in its most recent earnings call in February that it expected the federal government to replace some quarantine measures for international travellers with a testing program at airports by the time the suspensions were scheduled to lift. <br/>