Finnair to shed a quarter of cabin crew jobs in race for savings

Finnair Oyj revealed plans to eliminate about a quarter of its cabin crew posts in Finland after the closure of Russian airspace upended a business model based on flights to Asia, forcing the firm into steep cost cuts.

Finland’s state-controlled carrier is looking to scrap as many as 450 of its 1,750 flight-attendant posts there and extend the outsourcing of cabin services if no deal on revised contracts is reached, according to a statement Wednesday.

“We now need a genuine will from the negotiators to find solutions that would allow us to continue in-flight service with our own crew, and avoid redundancies,” Chief Executive Officer Topi Manner said.

Finnair said in September it would drop its focus on East Asia due to ongoing coronavirus curbs and airspace closures following the Ukraine invasion, which rendered many services impractical and unprofitable. The strategy calls for a slimmed-down jetliner fleet and a lower-cost base.

As part of the plan to slash expenses, Finnair has consulted with all of its staff on revised employment terms. Yet while agreements were reached with some groups there has been no accord with Finnish cabin crew, according to the company, whose shares traded 4.2% lower as of 1:29 p.m. in Helsinki.

Proposals put forward concerning flight attendants, who comprised 40% of the airline’s 5,000 staff at the end of 2021, include crew utilization, hotel layovers, and pay-per-hour rules for longer flights.

In the absence of a deal, Finnair said it may need to subcontract cabin services on flights from Helsinki to Thailand and the US, having already done so to Singapore, Hong Kong, and India, and from Stockholm and Copenhagen to Doha.

Finnair is “openly blackmailing its workers to cut their wages with the threat to outsourcing cabin services and by threatening to fire hundreds of people,” Ismo Kokko, head of the AKT transport union, said in a statement.

The union has proposed other savings measures, such as flexible working arrangements, but these have been rejected by the airline, he said.

Finnair said talks on matters including outsourcing will begin on Nov. 23 and last at least six weeks.

The carrier said previously it would cut up to 200 executive, management, and expert roles, including 120 in Finland, amid the network revamp.