The closure of Russian airspace is causing considerable changes in Finnair’s traffic. Finnair has called employee representatives to discuss plans regarding possible furloughs of up to 90 days, which, if implemented, would impact Finnair flight crews. The estimated need for additional monthly furloughs for pilots ranges from 90 to 200 and for cabin crew from 150 to 450 employees starting from April. The final furlough need, however, depends on how the exceptional situation progresses and what mitigations can be found and will be defined during the negotiations. The negotiations concern all 2800 pilots and cabin crew members in Finland. In addition, Finnair is evaluating the impacts regarding employees outside Finland in those destinations where the availability of work is estimated to decrease.
Russia issued a notam (notice to airmen) on Monday February 28, regarding the closure of Russian airspace from Finnish aircraft until May 28, 2022. Finnair has now cancelled all of its flights to Russia until May 28 and has so far cancelled several of its Asian flights until March 6, 2022. Finnair currently flies to Singapore, Bangkok, Phuket, Delhi and as of March 9 to Tokyo, avoiding Russian airspace and is currently evaluating possibilities to operate a part of its flights to Korea and China with an alternative routing. At the same time, Finnair is preparing an alternative network plan in case the situation in Russia is prolonged.
