Three Norwegian carriers have sent a joint letter of complaint to the country’s CAA and airports operator Avinor over alleged security checkpoint harassment, which SAS claims led to a flight cancellation on 15 March.
SAS Group regional airline Wideroe, Norwegian division SAS Braathens and budget carrier Norwegian have united to lodge a complaint over a series of Norwegian airport checkpoint incidents.
A Norwegian spokeswoman says: “There has been some harassment. That is why the three Norwegian airline CEOs have complained.”
The Norwegian spokeswoman describes the alleged harassment, which has affected the three airlines’ airside pass holders, as “physical and psychological”.
She stresses that only some security personnel are at fault, although incidents have occurred at the security checkpoints of several Norwegian airports.
Although there were some incidents before Christmas, the Norwegian spokeswoman says the situation has developed over the last couple of months.
A SAS Group spokesman says: “We have sent a letter to the Norwegian airports authority and we want to avoid incidents with our pilots and cabin crew being so upset that they are not prepared to do work after[wards]. It is important to say that there have only been a few incidents like that.”
One such incident involved a Wideroe flight between Hammerfest in northern Norway and Bodo, near the Norwegian west coast, on 15 March.
The SAS Group spokesman says that, ahead of the flight, there was a dispute between the captain and security staff over access to a secure airport rest area.
Upon returning to the aircraft, the spokesman says that security staff wanted to perform a second round of security checks on the captain, crew and aircraft, which was refused by the captain. The flight was cancelled as a result of the dispute, the captain claiming that he was unfit to operate.
The spokesman adds that another captain, not involved in this incident, has left Wideroe due to the intensity of the security checks.
No Avinor spokesman was immediately available to comment.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
