Thus, people who are staying on Svalbard and have not booked a flight yet, will have to settle for staying on the island for at least another week if the SAS strike lasts. The first available flight from Longyearbyen to the mainland is 13 July. And the first available flight from the mainland to Svalbard is 20 July. Per Brochmann is director of Hurtigruten Svalbard. He says that the situation is critical for the citizens and the business community. – For us, it is a crisis. We depend on planes. We are an island near the North Pole where the only opportunity we have to get to and from the island is by plane. Then it is clear that when SAS is now on strike, there is a crisis both for our guests and for the permanent residents on the island. Those who go to hospital treatment in Tromsø also suffer greatly, Brochmann says to news. – Terrible red numbers Tourism is one of the largest industries on the island, and the tourism companies therefore notice the strike well. – Half of the planes to the island are with SAS. Norwegian flies, but those planes are smack dab. So we are losing many of our guests who fly with SAS these days. I am most worried that this will be a long-term strike that will cause us to be harmed once again. We have now been through two years of pandemic. We have had a good season so far and it is an equity that will be built up here after two years with terrible red numbers. – How do the inhabitants of the mainland experience this isolation? – We get food and the necessities of life by boat from the mainland. But there are many who want to go on holiday down to the mainland these days and they are affected by the strike. It’s a hopelessness. But what can one do? We can only hope that the parties to the strike can sit down and talk together again so that the strike is as short as possible. On Wednesday and Thursday, EFT Airways, Titan Airways and Finnair also have departures from Longyearbyen, but these are charter flights that fly up guests who are going on an expedition cruise. – They are basically full. We have a dialogue with some of them, to look at the possibility of buying a place, Brochmann says to VG who also discusses the situation for Svalbard. Meetings in the emergency preparedness council Assistant governor, Sølvi Elvedahl, says they follow the situation closely. – We have had a meeting in the Emergency Preparedness Meeting no later than today, and monitor the situations on an ongoing basis. What we look for most are consequences for life and health. Everyone is affected by the strike and not just Svalbard. But you may be extra affected up here in relation to the fact that it is not just about jumping on a train or a boat to get to and from the island, she says to news. – What measures have you taken? – We are looking for where you can rent aircraft capacity so that people can get health care on the mainland if it does not come under the ambulance flight scheme, she concludes. – So it is life and health that come first? – Yes, and that is what we monitor
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