Finnair could cut up to 90 pilots amid labour union dispute
February 10, 2025
With Finnair and the Finnish Transport Pilots’ Association (SSL) caught up in five-month-long disagreements relating to pilots’ stand-by responsibilities, the airline is to discuss with its pilots “the possible need for personnel reductions” arising as a result of an amended cooperation agreement.
Tension arose after the closure of Russian airspace prompted Finnair to put two of its range-limited A330s “into productive use” under a wet-lease agreement with Qantas. Announced in May 2023, the initial agreement was to last two years, followed by a 2.5 year dry lease starting in late 2025. However, SSL argues that existing stand-by regulations do not coverflights operated for its partner carrier or its pilots’ transfer flights, and has accordingly extended industrial action.
With Finnair noting that this “reluctance to collectively agree on stand-by duty in a collective agreement” negatively “impacts Finnair’s ability to operate the flights as agreed,” it may be forced to terminate the lease agreement – directly impacting “the amount of work available to Finnair pilots”.
Finnair’s chief people officer Kaisa Aalto-Luoto described the upcoming ‘change negotiations’ between the airline (set to commence on 12 February) as “a tough day”. She elaborated: “In our 101 years of history, we have never needed to reduce pilot positions due to operational reasons. Even when the Russian airspace closed and fundamentally changed our operating environment, we succeeded in securing employment for our pilots with collaboration agreements”.
Although Aalto-Luoto added that “stand-by is an established practice in the industry” along with her belief that “every Finnair pilot recognizes it as part of their job,” the union disagrees, with five months of collective agreement negotiations failing to reach a resolution. As such, Finnair now plans to mandate stand-by duty in the contractual obligations of all pilots “in order to secure regular and reliable flight operations”.
SSL states that, as an organization in charge of negotiating collective labour agreements for its more than 950 members, it wants to “ensure employment conditions that will guarantee pilots economical status and safe flight duties”.
