Finnair cuts 700 jobs, continues furloughs for thousands

Finnair (AY, Helsinki Vantaa) announced 700 job cuts on October 20 following several weeks of talks with unions, including around 600 redundancies in Finland and 100 overseas. In September, the coronavirus crisis-struck flag carrier announced it was starting statutory cooperation negotiations to shed up to 1,000 jobs, but the final number was eased by 300 during talks with employee representatives. However, Finnair continues to implement temporary layoffs impacting most of its employees in Finland as well as other structural changes “due to the dramatic market changes caused by the pandemic,” it said, adding that these “may continue for a long time as the recovery of aviation will take several years according to industry estimates.” The furloughs relate to almost its entire workforce in Finland, the Finnish broadcaster Yle reported, and are in force until further notice. The talks with unions centred on 2,800 jobs and did not include cabin crew or pilots. The redundancies will be concluded by the end of March 2021. In total, Finnair said it currently employs about 6,500 people. “I’m grateful that together with our employees, we were able to find savings solutions which helped us to save approximately 150 jobs at Finnair. Despite that, this is a very sad day at Finnair. The pandemic has been completely unfair to our industry, and unfortunately, many Finnair employees now must experience its financial implications personally,” said CEO Topi Manner. “The changes are, however, necessary and inevitable. Finnair’s rebuild requires us to be competitive when aviation gradually starts to recover. Therefore, in the future, we will have to do many things differently in order to succeed in a competitive market.”