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 after Christmas. It will only be a day later, luckily, says Rustad. 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 on Christmas Eve. 15 SAS flights canceled 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 press manager Tonje Sund. Flights to and from Paris, Munich, Zurich, Alicante and Gran Canaria have been cancelled. There is also a departure to Amsterdam. In addition, there are cancellations on domestic flights, including between Trondheim and Bergen. Tonje Sund in SAS says they will not be able to get all their passengers home for Christmas this year. Photo: SAS – It is demanding to find an alternative for the passengers who are injured, but we are working hard, says Sund to news on Saturday morning. The reason is the backlog after storm Pia on Thursday. There were also major delays in air traffic on Friday. Friday was one of the biggest travel days of the year. Then the weather caused trouble at Flesland airport in Bergen. Photo: Cato Heldal Kristensen / news – It concerns, among other things, rest time rules for employees that I am required to maintain, explains the press manager. She says they are trying to find an alternative for those who are injured, but that it is particularly difficult during the Christmas weekend because of many ugly planes. – We cannot promise that everyone will come home for Christmas. Not the same problem with other Norwegian, on the other hand, they don’t have the same problem with cancellations. They currently have no cancellations to or from Norway, but there are some delays, says press officer Eline Hyggen Skari. But Norwegian also has some backlog after the storm, says Skari: – We set up five extra flights yesterday also to make up for what we couldn’t run due to the storm. I got a lot of people out then. Storm Pia also hit Denmark, like here in Aalborg in North Jutland. Photo: Claus Bjoern Larsen / Ritzau Scanpix/AP Nor does Widerøe have any canceled flights in advance. – But I have some delays due to the challenges yesterday. It is typical that the crew arrives 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. Thinks students are badly affected Maria Rustad believes that there may be many students among those affected by the cancellations today. – Students are perhaps a little extra delayed, as they often cannot leave earlier due to teaching, she believes. This e-mail appeared in Maria Rustad’s inbox on Saturday morning. Then she had to throw herself around to get home for Christmas. Photo: Screenshot – I can imagine that there are others, at least on those planes today, who have had the same problem. If she hadn’t found another plane, Rustad would have had to celebrate a French Christmas for the first time. – Fortunately, I have partners here, so I probably had fun with him. But it would have been sad not to be able to go home, because I haven’t seen my parents for six months.
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Several flights cancelled, Norwegians abroad will not get home for Christmas – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
