Finnair prepares for a national demonstration by labor unions

Finnair (Helsinki) has issued this statement for Friday, September 18:

The Finnish labor unions have announced an extensive, nationwide demonstration to take place in Finland on Friday September 18, 2015. The demonstration is expected to have a wide impact on different industries, including commercial aviation.

Finnair estimates the demonstration to have significant impacts on Finnair customer service, baggage handling and different processes and services related to flight departures at Helsinki Airport on Friday. These services are affected primarily between 11:00 and 13:00 EET, but the impacts can be visible to customers both prior to the demonstration period and after it – for example, transportation services at Helsinki Airport are impacted during 06:00-22:00 EET.

“We are extremely sorry about the disruption this demonstration causes to our customers’ travel plans. We will do our utmost to serve our customers in the best possible way in this difficult situation, and thus offer them the possibility to change their flights,” says Janne Tarvainen, Head of Finnair’s Operational Control Center. “We hope that despite this demonstration that is not dependent on Finnair, as many customers as possible will get to their destinations as planned.”

Friday is the busiest day in terms of passenger numbers for Finnair, and the demonstration thus impacts thousands of Finnair customers. The demonstration’s impacts are expected to cause flight delays, time table changes and possibly also flight cancellations during Friday. Even though the demonstration takes place on Friday, some impacts can still be expected in aviation over the weekend.

Finnair has started preparations to minimise the disruptions the demonstration causes on our customers’ travel plans. Customers who have reservations on Finnair flights during September 17-19, 2015, can change their trip to another time free of charge, and avoid traveling during the time when the demonstration causes delays and other disruption on Finnair traffic.

Finnair continues to estimate the detailed impacts of the demonstration, and will communicate possible time table changes and/or cancellations starting on Wednesday, September 16. Finnair advises customers to take the following action:

• Customers who are travelling with Finnair on September 17-19, 2015 can already now change their travel dates free of charge, following instructions given athttp://www.finnair.com/info
• Please make sure that you have the correct mobile number and other contact information in your reservation.
• Decisions on timetable changes and/or cancellations are made starting on Wednesday, September 16,2015, and we will communicate the changes directly to customers, and also on our webpages at http://www.finnair.com/int/gb/flights/flightlist
• If a flight is cancelled, customers can change their travel date to an earlier or later date, get rerouted when possible, or seek a refund for the ticket price.
• We advise customers to reserve enough time to get to Helsinki Airport, as the demonstration is expected to have impacts on public transportation as well as on transportation services near the airport.

We apologize if our customer service lines are busy during the next few days.