The problems in aviation do not only affect Schiphol: Brussels Airlines also cancels five hundred flights in the months of July and August. The airline wants to reduce the workload for pilots and cabin crew and avert another strike. Last month, the staff stopped working for three days. Pilots of the Scandinavian airline SAS are also threatening a strike.
Brussels Airlines previously canceled 148 flights. With these new cancellations, the total comes to about 675. That amounts to 6 percent of the total number of flights. Unions say that cutting flights is the only way to ease the workload.
Brussels Airlines says it is “commercially impossible” to cancel even more flights. The earlier strike already cost the airline around 10.2 million euros. Canceling the flights will cost about the same.
SAS pilots likely to go on strike
Where Brussels Airlines seems to prevent a strike, about 900 SAS pilots are expected to stop working soon. The airline and the pilots’ union could not agree on a new collective labor agreement.
SAS CEO Anko van der Werff is particularly displeased with the timing of the strike: “How on earth can a strike in the busiest week of the past 2.5 years help us find and attract investors?”
Van der Werff also says that rebooking flights will be difficult for travelers. They will probably get a voucher instead.