Finnair Plus - Finnair Cabin Crew Strike Threat (Merged Threads)

From the Finnair web pages:

FINNAIR PREPARING FOR ILLEGAL STRIKE


The Finnish flight attendants’ union SLSY has threatened Finnair with an illegal strike that would threaten the company’s traffic starting Thursday morning 19 October at 4 am Finnish time.

Finnair flights will be operated normally on Wednesday 18 October.

Finnair regrets the inconvenience to customers that the possible illegal strike would cause. Effects of the possible strike on Finnair operations will be communicated on Wednesday as soon as further information is available. Finnair is flexible with bookings for flights this week. Customers are asked to contact the travel agency where they have made the booking.

Cancellation of flights causes Finnair losses of 2.5 million euros per day.

The union representing Finnair's cabin crews is threatening to go on strike starting 4 am on Thursday, October 19. The reason for the strike is Finnair's plans to lower the starting salaries of new cabin crew (or, failing this, flag more planes out to their foreign subsidiaries). If the strike goes on, it is likely to have wide-spread effects on Finnair's flights.

Given that we have the EU Summit in Finland on Friday, it is likely that the government will browbeat Finnair and the unions to some sort of agreement (or at least delay) to avoid major embarrassment.

However, if you absolutely have to be in Finland on Thursday or Friday, you may want to consider some alternative reservations, just in case. Given the situation, refundable fares would seem to be a good idea.

Check the Finnair web site for updates.

Cheers,
T.

http://www.finnair.com/strike

Finnair's activities during the illegal strike
Finnair will be able to operate some flights during the illegal strike of theFinnish flight attendants' union. The strike begins on Thursday 19 October at 4am Finnish time. Leisure flights will be operated in full, but scheduled flights will be affected.
Finnair will operate some European and domestic scheduled flights during the illegal strike. The flights will run under irregular schedules.

A wide-bodied Boeing MD-11 aircraft will be operated to London and Paris and smaller aircraft to Brussels, Stockholm and Tallinn. No long-haul flights to Asia or the US will be operated. Domestic destinations include at least Oulu, Kuopio and Tampere. A cargo flight will be flown to Beijing.

The number of flights will be increased where possible. Additional capacity for scheduled flights is being looked into.

Finnair regrets the inconvenience to customers that the illegal strike is causing.

Finnair is flexible with bookings for flights. Customers are asked to contact the travel agency where they have made the booking.

If a booking has been made directly from Finnair, customers are asked to contact their local Finnair office.

Ok guys, it seems that both parties have decided enough unnecessary harm has been done to the Finnair image and it is time to get back to business:

STRIKE ENDS: FINNAIR BEGINS RETURINING TO NORMAL


As the flight attendants’ strike has ended, Finnair is returning to its normal flight schedules step-by-step starting immediately on Friday evening.

The airline will operate its first long-haul flight to Bangkok already on Friday night. The aim is to also operate other Asian flights from Helsinki and the flight to New York on Saturday afternoon.

Finnair will strive to return to normal European and domestic schedules by Saturday evening. The fact that there are fewer flights on weekends eases the return to normality.

Leisure flights, on the other hand, will need to be operated according to irregular schedules, but in their entirety.

Finnair regrets the inconvenience and confusion the strike has caused its customers. Finnair strives to be worthy of its customers’ trust world-wide in the future as well.



(Finnair web pages)