The operations of Helsinki Airport are expected to suffer the impact of a political strike against the Finnish government that was announced by several employee unions.
Therefore, Finnish Air is expected to cancel around 550 flights that had been scheduled for February 1st and 2nd, as these are the strike dates that were announced.
The cancellation
Finnair said that the political strike in Finland was the reason behind their decision of cancelling 550 flights between February 1st and 2nd.
It said that flight cancellations would be processed on Tuesday and Wednesday one flight at a time with customers offered alternative routings. It added that they did intend to operate a few flights during the strike.
But, majority of the flights will be cancelled and only a few will remain in operation. The Finnish Airline is planning on operating around 280 flights per day as part of its normal traffic program.
Finnair issued a press release in which it said that from Tuesday morning i.e. January 30th, they would start implementing flight cancellations one flight at a time.
Meanwhile, customers will be offered alternative routes or traveling schedules to accommodate them due to the flight cancellations.
The announcement
Vice President of Finnair Operations Control Center, Jari Paajanen said that they had already offered customers the opportunity of changing their travel dates on flights.
He added that from January 30th, they would begin rerouting customers and use flights of other airlines to do so.
Furthermore, the company announced that ground services are also likely to be affected during the strike, such as flight service and baggage loading. This would lead to more flight delays.
It will take approximately two days to process the cancellations and reroute customers because of the large number of customers and cancelled flights.
More details
Finnair had already begun offering its customers the possibility of rescheduling their flights for different days after February 1st and 2nd two weeks earlier.
However, customers can only reschedule their flights until March 15th, 2024 and not for a later date. The strike is not only expected to have an impact on the Helsinki Airport.
The local trains, trams and metro in the Helsinki Metropolitan Region are also expected to be impacted, as are rail workers who have a shift scheduled for February 2nd, Friday.
But, the union noted that the political strike would not have any impact on the sleeper trains coming and going to northern Finland.
Hakan Estrom, the Interim President of JHL, said that only employers are benefitting from the changes that the government has introduced.
He added that these strikes were due to the approach of the government to dictate rather than negotiate.
With more public sectors joining the strike, it is turning into a nationwide one and is aimed at opposing the government’s policy, which is considered unfair.
Since autumn of 2023, JHL has been organizing strikes and they have escalated gradually, with the most recent one being no exception.
