Finnair airline, based in Northern Europe, reports that the closure of Russian airspace has caused considerable changes in the airline’s traffic, leading to possible major impacts on its workforce, as many of its flights to Asia became unfeasible to be accomplished without flying over Russia.
Finnair called employee representatives on Thursday to discuss plans on possible leave of up to 90 days, which, if implemented, would affect flight crews.
The estimated need for additional monthly leaves starting in April for pilots ranges from 90 to 200 and for cabin crew from 150 to 450 employees, totaling 240 to 650 temporary leaves.
The final license requirement, however, depends on how the exceptional situation progresses and what mitigations can be found, and will be defined during negotiations.
The negotiations concern all 2,800 pilots and cabin crew members in Finland. In addition, Finnair assesses the impacts on employees outside Finland in destinations where the availability of work is estimated to decrease.
Russia issued a memo (Notice to Airmen) on Monday (28) about the closure of Russian airspace until May 28, 2022. Finnair has canceled all its flights to Russia until that date and has so far canceled part of its Asian flights until March 6, 2022.
Currently, Finnair still maintains flights bypassing Russian airspace to Singapore, Bangkok, Phuket, Delhi and from March 9 to Tokyo, and is currently evaluating possibilities to operate part of its flights to South Korea and China with alternative routes. . At the same time, Finnair is preparing an alternative mesh plan in case the situation continues.
“With Russian airspace closed, there will be fewer Finnair flights and, unfortunately, less work available for our employees,” says Jaakko Schildt, chief operating officer at Finnair. “A large part of our team has been on long furloughs during the pandemic, so the need for more furloughs seems especially harsh, and we’re sorry about that.”
Finnair claims that passenger and cargo traffic between Asia and Europe plays an important role in its flight network. Before the pandemic, more than half of Finnair’s revenue came from this traffic. During the pandemic, many Asian countries restricted travel, but Finnair operated many of its Asian routes supported by strong cargo demand.
Flying by avoiding Russian airspace adds several hours to the flight time, and the increase in the price of jet fuel combined with the longer journey weighs heavily on the ability to break even financially.
Finnair’s long-haul fleet comprises 16 Airbus A350-900 (+3 on order) and 8 Airbus A330-300.
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