Finnair strike: Airline to cancel over 500 flights this week over union walkout - with warnings it will cause major travel delays

Finnair announced yesterday (Monday 29 January) that it expects to cancel about 550 flights this week due to labour union strike action against the Finnish government. The 48-hour strike will take place on 1 and 2 February with the walkout significantly impacting operations at Helsinki airport.

Finnish unions have protested in recent months against the right-wing government's plan to favour local work agreements over centralised bargains, limit political strikes and make it easier to terminate work contracts. The strikes will cause significant delays.

The airline said: "The political strike will have a significant impact on Helsinki Airport's operations and on Finnair's flight operations. Finnair will implement flight cancellations in its systems one flight at a time, starting from this morning (Tuesday 30 January).”

It aims to operate only a few flights during the strike, with affected customers being informed directly. The airline added that customers would be offered alternative routes.  Long-haul flights with connections from Helsinki on strike days will be rerouted directly to destinations.

Finnair pointed out that ground handling services, including baggage loading and in-flight catering, could also be affected, as well as check-in and security. This would potentially delay the flights that will operate during the 48-hour strike. The carrier also warned that since there are many cancellations and customers, processing travellers’ requests to cancel or rearrange flights can take up to two days.

Jari Paajanen, the vice president of operations control centre at Finnair, said: “From 30 January onwards, we will start re-routing customers, using also other airlines’ flights. We will do our very best to offer a suitable flight option to as many customer as possible, but the number of alternative flights is limited. We ask customers to kindly wait for the re-routing from us, as our customer service team is busier than usual and queue times can be long.”