Finnair is starting consultations with its cabin attendants on the company’s plans to use subcontracted cabin crew on its Barcelona and Madrid routes as well as on charter flights to the Canary Islands. According to the plan, these routes would be operated so that the cabin crew is based in Spain. In addition, Finnair plans to make changes in the composition of cabin crew so that a part of the crew on its New York route and on charter flights to Asia would be hired locally, in a similar way as on Finnair’s scheduled Asian routes. If implemented, these plans could result in a reduction of approximately 100 cabin attendants from the Finnair workforce. The planned actions are a part of Finnair’s 140 million euro savings program aimed at restoring Finnair’s competitiveness and ensuring the company has a viable future.

The reductions would be implemented with temporary layoffs during 2013, and possible redundancies would be implemented earliest in 2014, after the protection from redundancies in the current collective labor agreement with cabin attendants ends.

”Using local cabin crew on our Spanish routes would be a natural way to decrease costs, “ explains Anssi Komulainen, SVP Customer Service. “On these long routes, the crew has to stay overnight at the destination, which adds to hotel and daily allowance costs, among others. By having the cabin crew based in Spain on these routes, we could generate savings.”.

Finnair is also considering changes in the composition of cabin crew on certain flights. “We have good experiences from using local staff on our Asian routes, and a similar model is now being planned for our New York routes and for charter flights to Asia,” says Komulainen.

Finnair has agreed with cabin attendants on actions aiming at savings, and while these have slowed down the increase in costs, they have not resulted in permanent savings in unit costs.

During the personnel negotiations, alternatives for generating savings and reducing personnel impacts are discussed with employee representatives.

Finnair employs approximately 1700 cabin attendants in Finland, and approximately 300 in China, Japan, Thailand, India, South Korea and Singapore.

Finnair announced on August 5, 2011 that it targets decreases in its annual costs of 140 million euros by 2014. Finnair has already announced that it:
• has chosen Swissport as its partner for  baggage and apron services
• is optimizing the size of its fleet in European air traffic, has discontinued the leases of four Airbus 320 series aircraft, and subleased five Embraer 170 aircraft
• is sourcing engine and component services from SR Technics
• has entered into a partnership with LSG Sky Chefs Group on catering services
• seeks solutions to improve the profitability of its European traffic
• has improved its route planning and aircraft utilization
• is streamlining its support functions as well as  marketing and distribution activities
• has initiated  numerous other savings measures throughout the company.

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