Maternity, pregnancy and returning to flying in Scandinavia: the SAS parental leave in practice, the grounding, the ground job and the return to the roster
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#1 Norwegian, Oslo, four years, and I am pregnant and grounded, and the pregnancy thread on here is about the grounding rules and the SAS parental leave thread is about why Scandinavian carriers keep crew. This is the whole cycle from inside it, in the Norwegian system, for the crew who are planning a family and want to know what actually happens.
Telling the airline
In Norway you tell the airline when you know, because the regulator grounds pregnant cabin crew from a defined point (the airline's medical decides the exact week, typically early in the second trimester at the latest, and many crew are grounded earlier on the medical's advice). Telling early is protected: the Norwegian law and the collective agreement forbid any disadvantage, and the union (Parat for Norwegian) is there if anyone forgets.
The grounding
From the grounding week, the crew member moves to a ground role if one is available (the crew planning office, the training centre, the customer relations desk) or to paid sick leave under the pregnancy provisions if not. The pay is protected under the agreement at a rate that does not collapse. This is the thing crew from other countries cannot believe: the grounding is not unpaid.
The parental leave
Norway gives parents a shared leave of around a year at a high pay rate through the state, with a father's quota that fathers actually take (the SAS thread makes the same point). Cabin crew take it like everyone else. The airline holds the position. The seniority continues. The crew rooms are full of parents who took the year and came back.
The return
A medical to confirm fitness, a recurrent if the annual has lapsed, a short refresher on the aircraft, and the roster. The return is protected: the same base, the same grade, the same seniority. Part time on return is common and the agreement makes it a right to request, not a favour.
The Scandinavian difference
Crew from the Gulf carriers, where pregnancy is a contract question, and from the low cost agency contracts, where the grounding can be unpaid and the return uncertain, read this as a fantasy. It is Norwegian employment law applied to cabin crew through a collective agreement. It is why the Scandinavian carriers keep women flying into their forties and why the crew rooms have people with 20 years and three children.
The honest cost
The pay is lower than the Gulf's. The tax that funds the state leave is high. The airline is smaller and the roster is less glamorous. Those are the trades. For a crew member who wants to fly and have a family in the same decade, the trades are worth it, and the Scandinavian carriers know that is their recruitment pitch.
For crew planning a family
If you are at a carrier with a strong agreement: read the pregnancy and parental sections now, not when you are pregnant. If you are at a Gulf carrier or an agency contract: know what happens before you decide, because the answer is very different. And ask the crew who did it at your airline; every base has them and they know the real version.
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#2 SAS Stockholm, two children, and Annika's cycle is exactly the Swedish version with the Swedish state leave. The grounding was paid, the leave was long, the return was to my grade. My Gulf friends do not believe it. It is just the law here.
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#3 SAS Copenhagen, and the Danish version matches. The part time on return being a right to request is the thing that keeps the crew rooms full of parents. The agreement is the whole thing.
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#4 Norwegian Oslo, and I took the leave two years ago and came back to my base and my grade. The father's quota being taken by fathers is the Norwegian thing that surprises everyone. My partner is also crew and he took his.
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#5 Qantas domestic, two kids, and the Australian version under the FAAA agreement is between the Scandinavian and the Gulf: paid grounding for a period, a leave, a protected return, less generous than Norway and far better than Doha. Annika's honest cost paragraph is right for us too.
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#6 Emirates, and I read this the way Annika predicts: as a fantasy. The Gulf version is a contract conversation and a decision about whether you are staying. I am not planning a family here. Reading this, I understand why the Scandinavian crews do.
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#7 easyJet Manchester, and the UK version under the easyJet agreement is decent: paid grounding, statutory and enhanced maternity, a protected return, the part time request. Not Norway. Not the agency contracts either. Somewhere in the middle, like most of Europe.
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#8 Gatwick, and the 'read the pregnancy section now, not when you are pregnant' advice is the one every crew member under 35 should follow this week. The section exists. Nobody reads it until they need it.
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#9 @hollyflies that is exactly the honest comparison and the reason the choice of airline is a choice of life. The Gulf pays for the years you are there. Norway pays for the years you are a parent. Both are real. Choose the decade.