Finnair Cuts 20% of Flights in February

(13 Jan 2022)  Finnair has reduced its traffic programme for the month of February by around 20%, due to the number of staff on sick leave because of the omicron coronavirus variant and traditional flu season.

“Staff sick leave is now significantly impacting Finnair and airports in Finland as well as throughout the world,” said Ole Orvér, Chief Commercial Officer at Finnair. “We aim to meet these resourcing challenges through the cancellation of flights, to avoid last-minute changes and better manage our customers’ expectations. This will give customers more time to prepare for flight schedule changes and adjust their travel plans if needed.”

The majority of the cancelled flights are on routes where Finnair operates multiple daily flights, so customers will be offered an alternative flight on the same day. Such destinations include, for example, services to Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen, Paris and Rome.

Finnair A350-900 reg: OH-LWB. Picture by Steven Howard of TravelNewsAsia.com

Changes will also take place to long-haul flights: the inaugural of Finnair’s new Dallas service will move from February to 27 March and the start of the Nagoya flights, and added frequencies to Osaka, will move to the summer season 2022.

Finnair will also reduce weekly frequencies to Singapore to twice a week and to Hong Kong to thrice weekly.

“We are sorry for the inconvenience and disruption this may cause to our customers. However, reducing our traffic programme is necessary to better offer a smooth travel experience in the face of the expected resource challenges,” Orvér continues.

During the pandemic, Finnair has offered flexibility on all bookings and customers have been able to change their travel dates without a change fee. Until 28 February 2022, customers can change their travel dates as many times as they need, without any additional change fee. After that, they can make one additional change. In most cases, customers can make the change themselves online through the Manage Booking service without needing to contact Finnair’s Customer Service.

In addition, the strike announced by Finnish labour union Pro for 17 January may also cause more disruption and flight cancellations. Finnair is not a party in the dispute between the two labour unions, but any strike action would still have an impact upon Finnair aircraft maintenance. The airline says it has made special arrangements to secure the continued maintenance of its aircraft during the potential strike.