SAS risks futher costs from 2019 strike after court ruling

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/>