Finnair cancel 230 summer flights, effects on 30,000 passengers

Finnair Cancel 230 flights from summer to nearly 30,000 passengers.

Of the flights to cancel, 69 are North American flights, one is other long-haul flight and the remaining 160 European flights.

« Passengers have been told about cancellations this week. Alternative routing has been offered, or if it does not fit, money refund, » Finnair Communications Manager Days Tallqvist tells you.

According to Tallqvist, the cancellation is due to a temporary shortage of resources, in practice pilot shortage.

This is due to a chain reaction: now in the spring, there are change negotiations that have been the subject of collective bargaining and the co -operation actions of the pilots that have been ongoing since the autumn, Tallqvist says.

Pilots Collective action involves refusing to work on emergency work, for example, illnesses are not repaired.

According to Tallqvist, this has led to the fact that Finnair has not been able to reliably cooperate with the Australian Qantas airline, ie to take care of the Qantas Sydney-Bangkok and Sydney-Sinkapore routes.

Finnair flies routes to Qantas because the shut-off of the Russian airspace limits Finnair’s long-distance A330 aircraft opportunities from Finland.

« Qantas is wondering if you can continue with us, and that is why we have started change negotiations on a possible reduction in work. If Qantas cooperation ends, that would mean a 90 reduction of pilots’, » Tallqvist says.

Change negotiations are currently underway, and therefore Finnair has not been able to train and recruit extra people for the needs of the summer season. In the summer, there are more seasonal flights, and on the other hand, pilots must be able to take their holidays.

Tallqvist The amount of cancellations is related to the fact that Finnair flies more than 300 flights per day in the summer’s busiest season. In other words, the cancellation of over 200 flights for two months means individual flights per day.

« Of course, it’s not nice either, » Tallqvist says.

The cancellations first told Evening leaf.