Finnair to outsource more flight attendants
Finland’s flag carrier Finnair is starting a negotiation to outsource more of its local flight attendants with those based in the United States (U.S.) and Thailand.
As its latest cost-cutting measure, the airline is looking to cut its 1,750 flight attendants in Finland to 450 by year-end to restore profitability after the pandemic and the airline’s ban on Russian airspace.
Finnair CEO Topi Manner said, “Our target continues to be to find a savings solution together with our cabin crew. We now need a genuine will from the negotiators to find solutions that would allow us to continue inflight service with our own crew, and avoid redundancies. Discussion on alternative solutions is a vitally important part of the change negotiations process.”
Finnair already outsources flight attendant bases in Hong Kong, India, Singapore, and Sweden. Aside from outsourcing as a cost-cutting measure, Finnair also proposed changes to crew utilization efficiency, layover hotel rules, and additional per-hour pay for long-haul flights.
The outsourcing negotiations of Finnair will start on November 23, 2022, and are estimated to last for six weeks.
