Finnair confirmed on 14 November that it has proactively cancelled 300 flights scheduled for 9 and 13 December after the Finnish Air Line Pilots’ Association (SLL) issued a strike notice for those dates. The walk-outs will last 24 hours each and involve cockpit crews on all long- and short-haul services, forcing the airline to ground most of its fleet.
The labour dispute centres on a proposed productivity clause in the next three-year collective agreement. Management wants greater roster flexibility to match seasonal demand, while SLL argues that recent profitability improvements justify higher base pay and index-linked cost-of-living adjustments. Talks mediated by the National Conciliation Office collapsed late on Wednesday.
![Finnair Pilots Announce December Strikes—300 Flights Already Cancelled]()
Finnair says roughly 33 000 passengers are affected so far. Re-booking options are limited because December is peak travel season for Lapland tourism and for Asia-bound business traffic that connects via Helsinki. The carrier is offering full refunds or travel vouchers, but warns that alternative flights on partner airlines are scarce.
Corporate travel managers should audit December itineraries immediately. Travellers holding time-sensitive Schengen visas may need new entry dates, and posted workers flying in under the EU ICT permit scheme risk breaching 90-day limits if assignments are postponed. Firms moving equipment by air-cargo should also consider contingency routings through Stockholm or Copenhagen, as belly-hold capacity on Finnair’s A350 fleet will be largely unavailable.
If no settlement is reached, union statutes allow SLL to escalate with additional strike days at 14-day intervals—potentially disrupting the entire Christmas and New-Year period. Observers note that the last major Finnair pilot strike in 2010 cost the airline an estimated €20 million per day and triggered months of schedule instability.
The labour dispute centres on a proposed productivity clause in the next three-year collective agreement. Management wants greater roster flexibility to match seasonal demand, while SLL argues that recent profitability improvements justify higher base pay and index-linked cost-of-living adjustments. Talks mediated by the National Conciliation Office collapsed late on Wednesday.
Finnair says roughly 33 000 passengers are affected so far. Re-booking options are limited because December is peak travel season for Lapland tourism and for Asia-bound business traffic that connects via Helsinki. The carrier is offering full refunds or travel vouchers, but warns that alternative flights on partner airlines are scarce.
Corporate travel managers should audit December itineraries immediately. Travellers holding time-sensitive Schengen visas may need new entry dates, and posted workers flying in under the EU ICT permit scheme risk breaching 90-day limits if assignments are postponed. Firms moving equipment by air-cargo should also consider contingency routings through Stockholm or Copenhagen, as belly-hold capacity on Finnair’s A350 fleet will be largely unavailable.
If no settlement is reached, union statutes allow SLL to escalate with additional strike days at 14-day intervals—potentially disrupting the entire Christmas and New-Year period. Observers note that the last major Finnair pilot strike in 2010 cost the airline an estimated €20 million per day and triggered months of schedule instability.
