By Scott Kanowsky
Investing.com -- Shares in SAS AB (ST:SAS) fell sharply on Monday after the Scandinavian airline warned that a new pilot strike poses a major risk to the future of the company.
In a statement, SAS said the labor action will lead to about 50% of all flights being canceled while impacting 30,000 passengers per day. The carrier added that the strike will hit its short-term financial position, and could become worse over an extended period of time.
"A strike at this point is devastating for SAS and puts the company’s future together with the jobs of thousands of colleagues at stake. The decision to go on strike now demonstrates reckless behavior from the pilots’ unions and a shockingly low understanding of the critical situation that SAS is in,” said SAS President and chief executive Anko van der Werff.
SAS and its pilots' unions have been in crunch wage to talks throughout the past week to prevent a strike, but SAS said they were unable to reach an agreement.
According to the unions, nearly 1,000 pilots from Sweden, Demand, and Norway are set to go on strike. SAS said it hopes to restart negotiations to get its pilots back to work "as soon as possible."