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Pilot Strike: 22 Norwegian flights cancelled
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March 5th, 2015
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This article is more than 9 years old.
Some 35,000 passengers affected as the low-cost company cancels all domestic flights today
Norwegian, the continent’s third-biggest low-cost airline, is facing one of its biggest crises so far.
Facing a massive pilot strike, it has needed to cancel at least 22 flights today.
Daniel Kirchhoff, Norwegian's communications consultant, estimates some 35,000 passengers will be affected.
Passengers traveling to and from Aalborg, Oslo and Stockholm are especially affected. Only a few Swedish and Danish flights will take off today.
Disappointed passengers waiting in vain
Meanwhile, thousands of passengers, unaware of the strike, are queuing in vain at Norwegian's check-in desk at Copenhagen Airport.
"I received an SMS just 20 minutes before my flight. I called them and was told to keep checking the internet and that I can cancel the flight and apply for a refund," Kalinka West, a passenger scheduled to travel to Spain today, told the Copenhagen Post.
The airline’s long-haul routes from Scandinavia and UK to the US and Asia are operating as normal.
READ MORE: SAS flying again, but a new strike could ground Norwegian
Norwegian is losing up to 70 million kroner a day
Around 650 pilots – including 100 Danish ones – have decided to go on strike after three months of unsuccessful negotiations regarding their deteriorating working conditions as the low-cost airline seeks to cut costs.
According to Jacob Pedersen, an aviation analyst at Sydbank, the pilots' strike will cost between 25 and 70 million kroner a day.
Meanwhile, Norwegian has called upon pilots from its subsidiaries to fly for the company on the routes affected by the strike.
This has caused discontent among the striking pilots who have asked the international pilot federation IFALPA to blacklist all the pilots who choose to assist Norwegian.
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