Int'l Travel Update, Christmas 2023 Edition

Avoid SAS and Copenhagen Airport, if you can

It’s this time of the year, again, when I shall compose another int’l travel update.

The reason for doing so is pretty straight-forward: our Christmas was quite derailed due to human error and outright incompetence as part of our family—who wished to visit us over the holidays—was waylaid in Copenhagen on 23 Dec.

Their connecting flight was cancelled after ground staff dithered and pretended (?) not to know when the aircraft was supposed to leave; as far as we know, the plane was there, but neither cabin crew nor ground staff bothered to show up.

Scheduled for departure at 9 p.m. local time, it took the airline—and, yes, I shall name them: Scandinavian Airlines—to send out one of these infamous messages:

It’s a symbolic image, and this particular one is taken from the below-cited piece.

Events soon took a turn for the worse, because the only flights our guests were offered were, well, telling you everything about madness, incompetence, and lunacy.

• Option 1 was to stay overnight in Copenhagen, fly to Las Palmas in the morning of 24 Dec., and from there to Norway. Yes, you read that correctly, it would be a five-hour flight south from Denmark to Spain, a few hours at Las Palmas International, and another six-hour flight north. Don’t ask me about SAS’ ‘carbon footprint’ on this one.

• Option 2 was to stay on until Boxing Day before SAS was able to provide anything remotely resembling ‘service’.

Yes, they are travelling as a party of five, and I understand that it might be ‘tricky’ for airlines to accommodate such a ‘large’ party ‘extraordinarily’. But. The flying part is actually the smallest component here, for booking and scheduling is literally the business of an international airline. My point is: SAS sucks.

Oh, and lest I forget, Copenhagen Airport managed to ‘lose’ (hopefully only temporarily) three out of four checked-in luggage items. The one they found so far has made it to Norway with the original connection.

This is the second time in half a year that we’ve been affected in such a way by this hell-ish combination of SAS and a layover in Copenhagen. In summer, my wife and our kids spent an extra-night in Denmark after virtually the same happened (we didn’t book that connection; a travel agency did arguing that ‘you wouldn’t want to go via Germany these days’). My point is: Copenhagen Airport sucks.

Is this all part of the ‘new normal’ or just ‘stupid’, though?

Well, thankfully, we have answers about this. As we frantically tried to deal with the fall-out of the above-described situation on 23/24 Dec., I found the below legacy news item that sheds some light on the overall situation.

As always, translation and emphases mine, as are the bottom lines.

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Family Feared they had to Postpone their Christmas Celebration

By Silja Björklund Einarsdóttir and Line Tomter, NRK, 23 Dec. 2023 [source]

Storm Pia is still causing trouble for one airline—two days after it swept over parts of the country.

On Christmas Eve, Maria Rustad got the message she had been dreading: her flight home to Norway had been cancelled. Rustad studies design and architecture in Paris and had his last lecture on Friday evening. Therefore, she could not travel home earlier.

‘I just had to throw myself around and try to find another plane’, she says.

After some searching, she found a free seat with another airline. The only problem is that the plane doesn't leave until Christmas Eve itself, so she won't be home with her family until the evening: ‘So I “moved” Christmas. It will only be a day late, luckily’, says Rustad. [this is also telling: Christmas is on the 25th…]

A few hours after she had found a new flight herself, she received another message from SAS. They had found a place for her on a flight at 10:30 a.m. on Christmas Eve.

15 SAS Flights Cancelled

The design student is not the only one who received such a message from SAS on Saturday.

15 of their flights have been canceled on Christmas Eve, according to PR manager Tonje Sund. [and a bunch of them on 23 Dec.]

Flights to and from Paris, Munich, Zurich, Alicante, and Gran Canaria have been cancelled. There is also a departure to Amsterdam that was cancelled. [and Copenhagen, but on the 23rd]

In addition, there are cancellations on domestic flights, including between Trondheim and Bergen.

‘It is demanding to find an alternative for the passengers who have been delayed, but we are working hard’, says Sund to NRK on Saturday morning. [sure /sarcasm]

The reason is the backlog after storm Pia on Thursday. There were also major delays in air traffic on Friday.

‘Among other things, it is about rest time rules for employees that I am required to maintain’, explains the press manager. [don’t you people have spare crews in case ‘something’ happens, like, you know, weather you have a few days advance warning?]

She says they are trying to find an alternative for those who are delayed, but that it is particularly difficult during the Christmas weekend because of many ill-maintained planes: ‘We cannot promise that everyone will come home for Christmas.’ [or on 25 or 26 Dec. either]

Not the Same Problem With Other Airlines

Norwegian, on the other hand, does not have the same problems with cancellations.

‘They currently have no cancellations to or from Norway, but there are some delays’, says press officer Eline Hyggen Skari.

Sure, ‘Norwegian also has some backlog after the storm’, says Skari, adding:

We also set up five extra flights yesterday [23 Dec.] to compensate for what we couldn't run due to the storm. I got a lot of people out then.

Nor does Widerøe [a smaller Norway-based company] have to cancel any flights in advance.

‘But I have some delays due to the challenges yesterday [23 Dec.]. It is typical that crews arrive late and then has a statutory rest period, that a certain number of hours must pass before they are allowed to work again’, says communications director Silje Brandvoll.

The delays also mean that some passengers may miss a connecting flight, although Brandvoll says they try to wait where they can:

There is a part that will lose further connection. We will contact the passengers concerned, so that they may rather stay at home. Now it's only one day before Christmas Eve, so I don't have any alternatives.

Widerøe also set up extra departures on Friday to make up for canceled flights on Thursday…

Trouble for Oil Rig Workers

After several helicopter departures were canceled yesterday, departures from oil platforms are also behind schedule.

‘As of now, the flight conditions are good, but we have quite a backlog that needs to be addressed. Unfortunately, it will not be possible to make up the entire backlog before Christmas Eve. As a result, there are some who were going home for Christmas who have to celebrate Christmas Eve together with colleagues offshore’, says Equinor spokesperson Ellen Maria Skjelsbæk to VG.

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Bottom Lines

SAS is an incompetent airline: ill-maintained planes, delays, and trouble with crews. On top of that, statutory limitations place additional constraints on them.

But. There was a storm, named ‘Pia’, on 21/22 Dec. It dumped a whole lot of snow, as in, see below:

View from my front door on 22 Dec.; it looks worse than it was, for the amount of snow there—some 25cm deep coverage—partially resulted from strong winds blowing snow towards the house.

It is, I’d say, quite ‘normal’ for a winter storm to hit the North Sea shores in December; yes, there may be some trouble for travellers, as anyone who’s been hit by a nor-easterner understands.

But one knows about these issues beforehand, and the fact that neither Norweigan nor Widerøe experiences ‘problems’ like those by SAS is telling.

Both airlines planned ahead and allocated resources accordingly, and while I am sure SAS could have done so, too, I doubt they did (for if they did, the result is arguably worse).

So, if you plan to travel in the near future, avoid SAS, and do avoid Copenhagen airport for a layover. I do hope that SAS, which has been in financial and legal trouble earlier this year, will either clean up its act or go out of business.

As for us, well, the in-laws are scheduled to arrive on 26 Dec. in the evening, and until then they’re stuck in a hotel in Copenhagen, which is all but closed for the holidays.

So, we shall have an extended celebration on the 27th upon our family will be re-united. I hope you and your loved ones have been spared this kind of shit-show.

Lest I forget, Merry Christmas, once more.