Finnair to lay off cabin crew
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Finnair has said that it has been unable to negotiate measures that would have avoided staff redundancies, and will now be forced to lay off cabin crew.
Following its latest round of negotiations, the airline said that “no common alternative was found to avoid lay-offs and outsourcing”. As a result, Finnair now plans to outsource cabin crew positions on a maximum of three long-haul routes this year, rising to more than 10 routes in future.
The national carrier said it needs to reduce “approximately 540 man-years”, with other options including lay-offs, temporary lay-offs, a shift to part-time work, or a combination of the three. Finnair currently has 1,500 flight attendants in Finland.
“Finnair is financially in a serious situation and needs to make difficult decisions in order to survive,” said the airline’s CEO, Pekka Vauramo. “We still hoped to find… solutions that would allow us to avoid lay-offs and outsourcing. Unfortunately this did not happen.
“We cannot handle the competition with our current cost structure. Now it is time to decide on how to guarantee good-quality yet cost-competitive service in the future,” he added.
In addition to the cabin crew lay-offs, Finnair says it needs to reduce 140 administrative positions.
Under a cost-cutting strategy started in 2011, Finnair is aiming to achieved cost-savings of EUR6 million (US$8.2m) in its administration and support functions.
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