I wish you the best of luck with the fight. Important for the real SAS pilots and all other European pilots that this sort of thing is stopped.

The only ex-SAS pilots that have been welcomed to SAS Connect are the once who were members of FPU union. FPU members were less than 0,5% of SAS pilots and they were the once who signed a CBA (for SAS Connect) with SAS management behind the backs of everyone else. The rest of the pilots at SAS were part of SPG (SAS Pilot Group) and they are not called to SAS Connect although 560 of them are unemplyed. Sad story.

This is not correct anymore. Actually SK(old SAS) offered reemployment to 50 pilots(ARN & OSL base). Among them many old CPH employees, but almost all of them decided to turn down SK and go to SAS Connect instead. I don't know the reason for this, anyone with more info? Have they been promised quick upgrades or is it the CPH base that’s the deal breaker?

Anyway there are a lot of old SK employees on their way to connect now, both FPU members and former SPG members..

Some rumors around that the first course has been cancelled until further notice. Anyone that can confirm this? Have assessment been paused aswell?

Latest update is that 108 pilots of the 560 laid off pilots have been called back to SAS SK. This will barely cover pensions.
With regards to SAS Connect, they are hiring. Still most of the former employees of SAS SK are turned down. It seems a good idea to be a member of FPU, if you want the job.
It is worth mentioning that there is an IFALPA recruitment ban on SAS Connect and Link, so one should think twice before accepting a job there right now.
As for former SK employees turning down the offer for reemployment to go to Connect instead, that is not something I have heard. Some CPH based pilots turn down the offer because they are offered ARN/OSL base and would rather wait for CPH base.

Where do you see that there is an IFALPA recruitment ban out?
On IFALPA's website, there's a "cancelled request" for assistance from NFU back in October.

What does the IFALPA recruitment ban mean in specific terms?

Apparently the NF request has been cancelled 13 Oct but there is another from the Swedish union SPF 25 Oct:
https://www.ifalpa.org/mutual-assistance-requests/

Hi Everybody, I apllied to both SAS Connect and SAS Link in November 2021, no answer so far. Please, any news about their screening and hiring? Thank you

Same here, it's been total radio silence.

Have the union situation been solved, or is still a strike within "main" SAS likely in April?

Does a SAS main strike not just play into the hands of Connect? They end up getting more work?

Connect is not big enough to cover the loss of production. Still main pilots has the power to influence their own future as well as that of working conditions in the whole industry.

How big are they now? Two bases, but how many aircraft? And they get all new Airbus deliveries?

I am ex SAS and this is my view:

There is no hope for a solution to the conflict between management and pilot unions. The management simply don't want unions, they want to control everything. The unions presented an offer with a total saving of about 30% in salaries and increased production, but management said no. The idea, hatched and nourished by a few individiuals in the top (not the CEO actually), is to have production platforms that produce traffic with various aircrafts in different sizes depending on demand. This means of course that every second or third year the bidding war will start over again and every supplier risks losing the contract with SAS, therefore the cost hunt will never stop. SAS Ireland, SAS Estonia, SAS Lithuania, SAS Moldovia, the possibilities are endless. Of course, the customer experience is promised to be identical.... This concept is called "enhanced operating model". The only thing that is not enhanced in this concept is management and head office where business is more or less unchanged. Many administrative colleagues have been laid off, placed in other departments but the ones still working received a yearly pay increase. SAS Ireland and SAS Link will "buy" services from SAS infrastructure, crew planning / ops / support functions.

SAS seems to be in limbo right now. They have called back about 100 pilots that were laid off in 2020, still there are 450 pilots left. As traffic demand picks up, restrictions in europé are lifted, the hiring would need to accelerate as well. From what I know, only a very limited number of pilots have been hired for the SAS Ireland base in Copenhagen.

Yes, the plan is to assign all future Neo deliveries to SAS Ireland.

Yes, it will be a conflict between SAS management and the unions this spring. SAS still has some 800-900 pilots employed, and the majority of traffic in terms of passenger numbers is flown by SAS Scandinavia (funny, what else would SAS be if not Scandinavia?) and all long haul flights are operated by SAS.

Are you rated in both A320 and E190?

Thanks for an insightful answer.
What does the unions want to avoid conflict? That all laid off pilots in "main" SAS get priority into SAS connect and SAS link before any external recruitment or that SAS connect and SAS link gets scrapped as a whole?

Getting priority into Connect/Link would be tiny act of fairness but still a huge deterioration in working conditions for the crew. No, the union want the project to be scrapped and previous agreements honored where a limited part of the production may be done outside of SK. The agreement has been violated for years but not to extent we see today with Connect/Link.

Is Scandinavian language, Norwegian, Swedish or Danish required for SAS Connect FO position? Like mainline SK does?
All SAS flight I have been on, pilot could speak fluent Scandinavian language,,,

As the new SPG (SAS Pilot Group) agreement is signed, these previous requirements might be valid again. But as far as I've heard, this information is not available.

You’d also be behind the 300+ former pilots SAS is legally required to rehire before you. Also all pilots in the SAS group is now on a Master Sen. List based on DOH within the SAS Group, including the Connect DEP’s which based on this will be at the very bottom behind the yet to be rehired pilots.

If SAS decides to bury Connect in the near future, since there’s no longer any savings to be made, all pilots will be merged by seniority into SAS including the requirements there. This includes a (any) scandi language (for now)…