Finnair announced last week that it would start negotiations with its cabin crew union to reduce employment by 25% by outsourcing select routes to outside companies (read more here).
The Finnair cabin crew will walk out from the job for 24 hours starting at 3 PM on Sunday, November 20, resulting in flight cancellations. However, the strike doesn’t appear to affect flights operated by the Finnair Norra subsidiary (many short-haul flights).
You can access Finnair here.
Finnair’s Release to Consumers:
Effects of transport worker union’s strike warning on Finnair flights
The Transport Worker’s Union in Finland has issued a strike warning regarding Finnair’s cabin crew between 3 p.m. 20 November and 3 p.m. 21 November 2022 at Helsinki Airport.
The strike will have considerable impacts on Finnair operations and unfortunately, we are forced to cancel several flights. We apologize for the worry and inconvenience this may cause you.
If your flight is cancelled, we do our best to re-route you to your destination or you can apply for a refund for unused tickets.
How do I know if my flight is cancelled?
- If you have a booking on any of the disrupted flights, we’ll contact you personally via SMS and/or e-mail on Saturday or Sunday. Please go to Manage booking and check that we have your current contact information, so that we can reach you in a case of disruption.
You can choose from the following options, if your flight is cancelled
- You can change your travel date from the original date online via Manage booking or by contacting Finnair Customer Service.
- We do our best to re-route you to your destination as soon as possible. As availability of alternative flights is limited, re-routing may take time. Thank you for your patience. We’ll send you your new flight information via SMS and/or email, and you can check it and other possible flight options also via Manage booking. In case you don’t find a suitable alternative flight in Manage booking, you can contact our customer service or your travel agency.
- In case you don’t want to use any of the flights in your booking and want to cancel your whole booking or we have cancelled all the flights in your booking, you can apply for a refund online. If you want to use some of the flights in your booking and apply for a refund of a cancelled flight, please contact our customer service.
Contacting our customer service
If you booked your ticket through a travel agency or a tour operator, please contact them to make changes to your reservation or to apply for a refund. If you booked your ticket through Finnair, our customer service is working hard to help you in this extremely exceptional situation. We recommend the chat service on our website or via Finnair mobile app. We are sorry that our customer service may be congested.
We are very sorry for the uncertainty and worry this situation may cause you.
Finnair Outsourcing Announcement:
Finnair Intends To Outsource More Long-Haul Cabin Crew
Conclusion
I looked at the flights that Finnair has already canceled for today, and it wouldn’t surprise me if there were a greater number of rotations canceled at the last minute. Finnair might be too optimistic about how many crews they can stitch together.
It was a strategic mistake for the Finnair cabin crew that they allowed specific routes to be outsourced to outside companies because it was clear that the plan was later to extend this to other, if not all, long-haul operations. The cockpit crew on all flights is employed by Finnair.
Finnair is responsible for rebooking affected passengers to their final destination at the earliest opportunity, even when this means rerouting them on competitors. The airline must also provide the duty to care (accommodation & meals) in case of long delays.
