Even though Finnair is in no way a party in the dispute, an announced airport strike in Helsinki will considerably impact Finnair’s flights on Friday 17 March 2017. The strike is planned to start Friday, March 17, at 3 pm and last until 7 pm EET at Helsinki Airport. The dispute is between the Finnish Aviation Union and the service sector employer union Palta about labour agreements in Airpro Oy.
The impact on Finnair is approximately the same as the strike which took place last Friday 10 March 2017.
“This is already the second time we have to cancel over 90 flights, which is nearly one third of our daily flights on Friday. Cancellations apply to a large share of our domestic and European traffic during the strike time,” says Jaakko Schildt, Finnair’s Chief Operating Officer.
“The cancellations unfortunately again disrupt the travel plans of thousands of Finnair customers. We sincerely apologize for the trouble and concern this is causing to our customers. We hope that the parties to the dispute will reach an agreement as soon as possible.”
In addition to the cancellations, 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/info. Finnair will also communicate with text messages and emails directly to customers whose flights are impacted.
“We ask our customers for patience, as contacting over 6 500 customers and finding suitable rerouting for them unfortunately takes some time. Last week we started contacting customers on Thursday morning and we were able to reach everyone by noon on Friday,” Schildt says.
The catering for flights that are flown during the strike will be limited, except for long-haul flights.
Finnair advises customers to reserve enough time when arriving for their flights, as delays are expected at Helsinki Airport. Customers are also asked to travel with hand luggage only, if possible, as there will be considerable delays in baggage handling on Friday.
Further information:
Finnair info pages: www.finnair.com/info
Finnair on Twitter: www.twitter.com/
Finnair on Facebook: www.facebook.com/
Finnair customer service on Twitter: www.twitter.com/
