The strike by Finnair flight attendants is continuing, negotiations aimed at ending the stoppage resumed on Thursday morning. The Finnish Cabin Crew Union SLSY voiced cautious optimism that the dispute might be resolved. Finnair was more doubtful.
About 60 per cent of Finnair flights are being cancelled. Almost all of Finnair’s holiday charter services are being flown, mostly using planes of other carriers.
On Thursday one leisure flight was cancelled to the Thai resort of Phuket. During the weekend, Finnair had to cancel one flight to Phuket and another to Cancún in Mexico.
Nearly all scheduled long-haul services have been cancelled, with the exception of one flight to Bangkok.
Finnair is still flying to its busiest European destinations, such as London, Brussels, and Paris. On domestic routes, Finnair is flying from Helsinki to Oulu and Rovaniemi, as well as to important holiday destinations such as Kittilä and Ivalo in Finnish Lapland.
On Wednesday Finnair flew about 35 per cent of its flights, and managed to serve nearly half of its passengers.
A number of other labour unions have lent support to the strike by the Finnish Cabin Crew Union SLSY.
On Tuesday the Finnish Aviation Union declared a support strike affecting about ten ground service companies dealing with arrival and departure services, luggage handling, catering, ice removal, and maintenance.
The Union of Salaried Employees (TU) has instructed its members not to do work affected by the strike, and the Finnish Transport Workers’ Union (AKT) has stopped fuel deliveries to Finnair planes. The Postal Workers’ Union has stopped handling mail on Finnair flights.
Finnair says that the impact of the support action has remained slight, causing mainly some flight delays.
The Finnair strike has filled up the planes of other airlines, such as Blue 1, Lufthansa, and KLM. Telephone customer services have also been busy.
