Finnair has to cancel one third of its flights on Friday due to strikes
Strike and support actions are planned for Friday, March 10 from 3 pm – 7 pm EET at Helsinki Airport, related to the dispute between the Finnish Aviation Union and the service sector employer union Palta about labour agreements in Airpro Oy. The strike will considerably impact Finnair’s flights on Friday, even though Finnair is in no way party to the dispute.
”We have to cancel approximately 100 flights, which is about one third of our flights on Friday. Cancellations apply to all of our domestic traffic, to a large share of our European traffic and one long-haul flight during the strike time, which is between 3 pm and 7 pm”, says Jaakko Schildt, Finnair Chief Operating Officer. “The cancellations unfortunately disrupt the travel plans of thousands of Finnair customers. We are extremely sorry about the trouble and concern this is causing to our customers, and are doing our best to find suitable reroutings for customers in this difficult situation.”
Finnair will also make changes to the departure times of certain flights, so that they can be operated outside the strike hours.
A list of cancellations and further information is available at www.finnair.com/GB/info . Finnair communicates also directly with text messages and email to customers whose flights are impacted.
“We ask our customers for patience, as contacting thousands of customers and finding suitable rerouting for them unfortunately takes some time”, Schildt says.
The catering for flights that are flown during the strike will be limited, with the exception of long-haul flights.
Finnair advises customers to reserve enough time for arriving to their flights, as delays are expected at Helsinki Airport. Customers are also asked to travel with hand baggage only, if possible, as there will be considerable delays in baggage handling on Friday.
Further information:
Finnair Media Desk, 358 9 818 4020, comms(a)finnair.com
Finnair info pages: www.finnair.fi/en/info
Finnair on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Finnair
Finnair on Facebook: www.facebook.com/finnair
Finnair customer service on Twitter: www.twitter.com/FinnairHelps