To cope with the resource challenges, due to the Omicron variant and flu season which has led to a significant increase of sick leave among staff, Finnair is now reducing its traffic program for the month of February by 20 per cent and offering other flight options to its customers.
These flight cancellations will enable Finnair to operate a more flexible schedule and adapt to the expected rise in sick leave across different functions at Finnair and its partners.
“Staff sick leave is now significantly impacting Finnair and airports in Finland as well as throughout the world. We aim to meet these resourcing challenges through the cancellation of flights, to avoid last-minute changes and better manage our customers’ expectations. This will give customers more time to prepare for flight schedule changes and adjust their travel plans if needed,” says Ole Orvér, Chief Commercial Officer at Finnair.
The majority of the canceled flights are on routes where Finnair operates multiple daily flights, so many customers will be offered an alternative flight on the same day. These destinations include, for example, services to Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen, Paris and Rome.
Changes will also take place to long-haul flights: the inaugural of Finnair’s new Dallas service will move from February to March 27 and the start of the Nagoya flights, and added frequencies to Osaka, will move to the summer season 2022. Finnair will also reduce weekly frequencies to Singapore to twice a week and to Hong Kong to three.
Customers with cancelled flights also have the option to apply for a refund for unused tickets.
During the pandemic, Finnair has offered exceptional flexibility for all bookings and customers have been able to change their travel dates without a change fee. Until February 28, 2022, customers can change their travel dates as many times as they need, without any additional change fee. After that, they can make one additional change.
