SAS and its pilots extend wage negotiations until Monday

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STOCKHOLM — Scandinavian airline SAS and its pilots have agreed to extend wage talks until Monday in hopes of averting a strike, a company executive told reporters on Saturday.

Nearly 1,000 pilots in Denmark, Sweden and Norway plan to strike if talks fail, unions say, which SAS says could leave some 30,000 passengers stranded every day.

« We need to sleep, none of us have slept for a very long time, » SAS chief negotiator Marianne Hernaes told reporters after the latest round of talks that lasted all night.

A strike would come at a difficult time for loss-making SAS as it seeks to restructure its business by making major cost cuts, raising new funds and converting debt into equity as part of a plan to to save the carrier from collapse.

Swedish daily Expressen previously reported, citing unnamed sources, that a deal had been reached, but SAS said talks were still ongoing in the hope of averting a strike. (Reporting by Terje Solsvik; editing by Niklas Pollard)