A strike by Finnair flight attendants has stranded up to 30,000 travellers as is set to continue Friday after talks between the two sides failed.According th Agence France Presse Finnair members of the Finnish Union of Air Hostesses and Stewards (SLSY) walked off the job at 4:00 am Finnish time (0100 GMT) on Thursday.

Cabin staff are protesting the airline’s planned recruitment of 500 flight attendants via its Estonian subsidiary company Aero on salaries 30 percent lower than Finnish employees’.

Finnair says the measure is necessary to combat falling ticket prices, rising costs and increased competition.

All long-haul passenger flights to Asia and the US have been cancelled, and services were drastically reduced from Finland to Europe on Thursday. Only a small number of flights returning from Paris, London, Brussels, Madrid, Rome, Stockholm and Tallinn were operated.

Statement:

Finnair’s activities during the illegal strike

Finnair will be able to operate some flights during the illegal strike of the Finnish flight attendants’ union SLSY. The strike began on Thursday 19 October at 4am Finnish time. As the SLSY has not communicated the duration of the strike, the traffic schedule for the next day will be posted each afternoon.
Finnair will operate some European and domestic scheduled flights during the illegal strike. The flights operated on Friday 20 October have been updated.

No long-haul passenger flights to Asia or the US will be operated.

Finnair regrets the inconvenience to customers that the illegal strike is causing.

Finnair is flexible with bookings for flights this week. Customers are asked to contact the travel agency where they have made the booking.

If a booking has been made directly from Finnair, customers are asked to contact their local Finnair office.

Contact details are available here: http://www.finnair.com/offices
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