SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK, Copenhagen Kastrup) cancelled around 700 flights during the last three months, around 1% of all scheduled services, partially as a result of a pilots' shortage at its ACMI provider CityJet (WX, Dublin International), the Irish Times has reported.
The Scandinavian carrier underlined that not all 700 cancellations were attributable to crew shortages, but it confirmed that it was one of the factors.
"We do not have a problem recruiting crews and have a steady flow of pilots joining the airline. However, in common with most regional airlines, we are also experiencing crews moving to other airlines to fly on larger aircraft, creating a temporary shortfall," a CityJet spokesperson said.
According to the ch-aviation capacity module, CityJet currently operates twenty-four CRJ900ERs on behalf of SAS. The Bombardier Aerospace regional jets are deployed on a total of 190 routes to 57 destinations across Europe and are based out of Copenhagen Kastrup, Stockholm Arlanda, Oslo Gardermoen, Bergen, Stavanger, and Trondheim.
CityJet also operates six active SSJ 100/95Bs on behalf of Brussels Airlines (SN, Brussels National) with a further one unit of the type stored at Venice Marco Polo for maintenance. The airline also operates twelve ARJ-85s on wet-leases to Air France (AF, Paris CDG) and on CityJet's own network.
