Scandinavian carrier SAS fined over way it announced pilot strikes

SAS has been fined by the Stockholm stock exchange after some journalists were told about pilot strikes minutes before the company issued an official press release.

SAS, which is currently in a Chapter 11 restructuring process, and its pilots were locked in mediation in July in a last-minute effort to prevent strikes. When the mediation ended and it became clear that strikes were going ahead, reporters at the mediation site quickly received the information.

The airline explained that it published a regulatory press release as soon as it could but that technical reasons meant the release was published a few minutes after the news reached the onsite reporters.

“That the news reached the media a few minutes before the regulatory press release was published is of course very unfortunate,” SAS said in a statement on September 23, 2022. Nasdaq Stockholm’s disciplinary committee has therefore imposed a fine equivalent to SAS’s annual fee to the stock exchange, the airline said.

Listed companies are bound by strict rules regarding the publication of sensitive information that can impact their share price, such as financial results, acquisitions or, in the case of airlines, pilot strikes.

The pilot strikes at SAS lasted 15 days, forcing the cancellation of 4,000 flights and costing the company millions.