Finnair to recruit 500 Cabin Attendants

Finnair has started recruitment to meet the needs of its growing Asia-Europe traffic. The airline is planning to recruit approximately 500 flight attendants by next autumn.

“Finnair’s Asian traffic has grown six-fold in the past five years. It is expected to increase by 30% before the end of the year and to keep growing. The leap in long-haul traffic also increases passenger numbers on European routes and is expected to create up to 2,000 new jobs by 2011,” said President and CEO Jukka Hienonen.

Finnair is recruiting the new flight attendants under the terms of the national collective agreement to its subsidiary Aero. The employment terms of flight attendants currently employed by Finnair will not change.

“The salary level of Finnair flight attendants is about 30% higher than that of the national collective agreement. This situation is unbearable for the company. Due to the decrease in ticket prices, the increase of costs and the tough competitive situation, Finnair does not have the means to employ new cabin personnel at higher salary rates than our competitors, which already apply the national collective agreement,” said Kaisa Vikkula, Finnair SVP Leisure and Travel Services who has been heading the negotiations.

Finnair has been negotiating on the recruitment of new cabin attendants to Finnair under the terms of the national collective labour agreement since the beginning of May. The association of Finnish flight attendants (SLSY) Tuesday rejected Finnair’s proposal for a solution to a question regarding the cabin attendants’ collective labour agreement. For this reason Finnair is recruiting new cabin personnel to Aero in order to ensure its traffic operations.

Finnair currently employs approximately 1,800 flight attendants. The interest in the career is great. Finnair received almost 1,500 applications in its September recruitment phase. The applicants were informed in the job announcement and during the recruitment process that they would be hired into the Finnair Group and that the national collective agreement and its salary provisions would be applied to them.

The average annual earnings of Finnair flight attendants in 2005 was 40,580 euros, the daily expense allowances were approximately 427 euros per month and their working hours an average of 26.3 per week.

See other recent news regarding: Travel News Asia, Finnair, Cabin Crew