Finnair Strike to Affect Flights on Wednesday

The Finnish Cabin Crew Union's (SLSY) strike is expected to notably affect Finnair's flight traffic today (Wednesday, 1 December 2010).

On Tuesday over 110 flights which affected around 6,000 passengers. Approximately 200 of Wednesdays flights will also be cancelled which affects around 10,000 passengers.

"We do our very best to take good care of our customers. We are very sorry for all the inconvenience the situation causes among our customers," said Finnair's SVP Customer Service Anssi Komulainen.

Information and instructions to passengers are updated continually on Finnair's website. A personal text message will be sent to the passengers of cancelled flights. For this, it is important that the current telephone number is included in flight bookings. Passengers can check this by following the instructions given on the information page.

Regardless of the strike, Finnair said that every effort will be made to operate Finnair's leisure flights normally. Leisure flights are mainly charter flights for the needs of tour operators.

Of scheduled flight destinations in Finland, Finnair flies during the strike to Oulu, Kuopio, Vaasa, Joensuu, Rovaniemi, Kajaani and Kuusamo. There will also be a service to Ivalo and Kittilä from Thursday to Sunday. Elsewhere in Europe, flights take place to Stockholm, Gothenburg, Copenhagen, Düsseldorf, London, Paris and Brussels during the strike.

Of long-haul flights, a daily service to Bangkok takes place. The timetables of all flights and the number of flights to destinations may deviate from normal and changes may occur.

Profit Warning

The strike directed at Finnair by the Finnish Cabin Crew Union (SLSY), beginning Tuesday, 30 November, is expected to give rise to significant earnings losses for Finnair due to a loss of bookings in the period during and surrounding the strike.

In addition, significant additional costs will arise from exceptional arrangements. As a result of these factors, Finnair's full-year operational result is expected to decline into a loss. During the strike, the direct net loss to Finnair will be 2-2.5 million euros per day.

The Finnair Group's nine-month operational result this year was 2 million euros. Earlier profit guidance given in August projected a profit for the final quarter, so the full-year operational result at that time was expected to be a profit.

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