newstodate.aero

Mar 03, 2022 (newstodate): The closure of Russian airspace causes deep changes in Finnair’s traffic, forcing the carrier to enforce flight crew furloughs.  
   Finnair has today called employee representatives to discuss plans regarding possible furloughs of up to 90 days, which, if implemented, would impact Finnair flight crews.
   The estimated need for additional monthly furloughs for pilots ranges from 90 to 200 and for cabin crew from 150 to 450 employees, starting from April.  
   The final furlough need, however, depends on how the exceptional situation progresses and what mitigations can be found and will be defined during the negotiations.  
   The negotiations concern all 2,800 pilots and cabin crew members in Finland.  
   In addition, Finnair evaluates the impacts regarding employees outside Finland in those destinations where the availability of work is estimated to decrease.
   On February 28, 2022, Russia issued a notam regarding the closure of Russian airspace from Finnish aircraft until May 28, 2022.  
   Finnair has now cancelled all of its flights to Russia until May 28, and has so far cancelled a part of its Asian flights until March 6, 2022.  
   Finnair currently operates flights to Singapore, Bangkok, Phuket, Delhi and as of March 9 to Tokyo, avoiding Russian airspace, and is currently evaluating possibilities to operate a part of its flights to Korea, and China with an alternative routing.  
   At the same time, Finnair is preparing an alternative network plan in case the situation is prolonged.