Thousands of charter travelers are stranded at their destinations and do not know when they will be able to return home due to the pilot strike. On Saturday, approximately 700 travelers had their flights to Sweden canceled.
In addition to the charter travelers whose vacation plans have been ruined due to the SAS pilot strike, thousands are waiting to travel home from their destinations. On Saturday, there were around 300 travelers from the charter company Ving and 400 from Apollo whose flights were canceled, all with destination Landvetter.
”"We hope and expect that the guests who were supposed to come home today will either come home tomorrow or at the latest on Monday. We have a close dialogue with SAS and of course we strive for them to come home as soon as possible," says Ving's Head of Communications Claes Pellvik.
The sympathy strike among Danish aircraft mechanics at Kastrup has complicated the situation and means that SAS is not getting all its planes ready to fly, according to Pellvik. He believes that the fact that travelers to Landvetter are being affected is due to logistical problems and that SAS does not have a base at that airport, as they do at Arlanda and Kastrup.
”"If you don't have aircraft and crew based at Landvetter, there are additional issues that need to be resolved.".
The Vingresor flights that were canceled on Saturday were scheduled to depart from Antalya in Turkey and Preveza in Greece. Two charter flights to Copenhagen and Oslo have also been canceled, affecting another 300 people. However, the stranded travelers are being well taken care of, according to Pellvik.
”We take care of those who stay an extra day or two and arrange for hotels and food,” he says.
For the charter company Apollo, this concerns approximately 400 travelers who will not be returning home on Saturday. Their plane was supposed to depart from Crete and Santorini to Landvetter.
”"Those who are stranded will of course receive hotel and food from us. We try to support them as much as we can. There are staff on site who can be of support," says Sandra Miller Kinge, communications manager at Apollo.
Source: TT-DI.SE
