A screen displaying flight information at Helsinki Airport on 13 December 2024. Finnair has warned passengers of possible cancellations, including ones that occur at short notice, as its pilots re-institute industrial actions after a holiday break in the labour dispute between the Finnish Airline Pilots’ Association (SLL) and Service Sector Employers (Palta). (Heikki Saukkomaa – Lehtikuva)
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PILOTS at Finnair will reinstitute a ban on standby assignments as part of an ongoing labour dispute between the Finnish Airline Pilots’ Association (SLL) and Service Sector Employers (Palta).
Päivyt Tallqvist, the director of communications at Finnair, confirmed to Helsingin Sanomat on Friday that the ban will likely force the majority state-owned airline to cancel some flights starting from this week, possibly at relatively short notice.
“We’ll likely be in a situation where flight cancellations are once again pretty likely,” she remarked, adding that it is impossible to estimate the number of cancellations as the ban effectively prohibits pilots from standing in for colleagues who have fallen ill, for example. “Unfortunately it means that the cancellations will come at quite a short notice to customers.”
Tallqvist said Finnair will notify passengers affected by the cancellations directly and will start immediately exploring re-routing opportunities.
“We have several flights a day to several destinations, and of course we’ll also use flights by other airlines [for re-routing]. We’ll always do our best so that customers can get to their destination as quickly as possible.”
Whether or not other airlines can offer suitable re-routing options depends on the flight that was cancelled, however, she reminded. It is also possible that some trips will have to be cancelled altogether.
“If the re-routing doesn’t suit the customer, they can’t re-schedule the trip, then there’s the option of asking for reimbursement for the ticket price,” Tallqvist told Helsingin Sanomat.
SLL on 20 December announced it would suspend its bans on both overtime work and standby assignments to prevent disruptions to the holiday travel plans of consumers. The announcement was made after the parties to the labour dispute had reached an agreement on continuing the negotiations locally.
The overtime ban was reinstituted on 2 January and the standby ban on Monday, 6 January 2025.
SLL and Palta have held negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement for pilots since last August. The previous agreement expired roughly three months ago.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
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Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
