Finnair cancels hundreds of flights due to looming pilot strike

FINNAIR on Saturday communicated that it will cancel hundreds of flights due to two work stoppages organised by the Finnish Airline Pilots’ Association (SLL).

SLL announced earlier last week that its members will participate in a day-long strike on both 9 December and 13 December. Pilots have also decided to reject on-call assignments for an indefinite period starting on 5 December, according to Service Sector Employers (Palta).

Finnair revealed that it will cancel roughly 300 flights on the strike days, estimating that the cancellations will affect some 33,000 air travellers. The cancellations will be entered into its system flight by flight, with the affected passengers receiving a notification, along with a possible re-routing offer, as the process moves forward.

Jaakko Schildt, the chief operating officer at the majority state-owned airline, expressed his disappointment with the union’s decision to “strike rather than negotiate”.

“This unfortunately disrupts the travel plans of thousands of our customers during the pre-Christmas season. We are doing everything we can to serve our customers well even in this difficult situation and will offer alternative flights to as many customers as possible,” he assured in a press release.

It is unfortunately impossible, the airline admitted, to offer all passengers a re-routing that is close to their original booking due to the high number of affected passengers. Passengers for whom a suitable re-routing cannot be found can apply for a refund of the ticket price from customer service or, when applicable, from the travel agency that made the booking.

Palta and SLL have sought to reach a new collective bargaining agreement for the past three months – under the guidance of the national conciliator since 4 November. Vesa Uuspelto, the chairperson at SLL, on Wednesday argued in a press release that pilots have voluntarily made numerous concessions in the past decade to reduce costs and improve efficiency in order to secure the ability of the majority state-owned airline to operate amid the crises caused by Covid-19 and Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine.

“In the negotiations, we are seeking for come compensation for the substantial improvements made to efficacy in past years. The employer side has been unwilling to even discuss the kind of changes that would have no financial impact,” he lamented.

SLL has, for example, demanded pay rises and improvements to the existing supplementary pension scheme.

Heini Wiik-Blåfield, the head of bargaining at Palta, described the demands generally as unreasonable and the pay-rise demand as “completely overblown” in a press release issued on Saturday.

“As pilots are adamant about their unreasonable demands, also the consequences will be unreasonable: the measures will mess up the trips of thousands of passengers in the run-up to Christmas,” she stated. “The pilots’ pay-rise demands are completely overblown in this economic situation and the changed operating environment after the closure of Russian airspace.”

Wiik-Blåfield reminded that Finnair had devised its strategy around its ability to fly from Helsinki to Asia over Russia.

“That competitive advantage no longer exists, and the situation has changed significantly. As the airline is flying shorter flights with smaller aircraft, the structure of operations has changed. There is a lot of competition in Europe, and Finnair has to be able to operate flexibly and cost-effectively amid the competition.”

Aleksi Teivainen – HT