SAS secures union deal

Pan-Nordic airline SAS has secured a pilots and cabin crew agreement that should see it avoid major industrial action.

Unions at SAS have accepted a pay cut of 6% for the 2,000 pilots in the group as well as a reduction in regular bonus entitlements and lower expenses levels for overnight stays have also been accepted.

The group intends to implement a $1.87bn (€1.53m) cost-cutting programme which will see its airline business split into three independent national airlines.

For their part, SAS will postpone making wide-ranging redundancy measures until 2006.

The deal with the pilots will save the airline SKr700m (€75.67m) a year.

SAS said total pay cuts covering all employee categories would come to SKr1.5bn (€162m) in 2005.

To finalise the deal which had been ongoing for months, SAS had conducted separate talks with 39 different trade unions.