As its latest cost cutting measure, Finnair is negotiating to try and replace flight attendants based in Finland with flight attendants based in the United States and Thailand.
Continue reading: Finnair Hoping To Outsource More Flight Attendants
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I remember flying Finnair from Mumbai to Helsinki some years ago and it was basically an Indian carrier. All but one of the cabin crew were Indian, all but one of the meal selections were Indian (and the only Western option ran out by the time they reached me), the announcements were all in Hindi, the IFE was significantly Bollywood slanted (this was before 1000 channels of AVOD was normal) and 90% of the passengers were Indian. Finland in name alone.
Think Finnair FA unions are weak? I just read in the news that doctors are going to suffer in January 2023 when Medicare cuts payments 4%, except surgery, which is cut 8%. So in the days of record inflation, cutting payments? The article says this is not the first time it's been but has been cut several times over the past 30 years. Doctors are banned from forming unions against Medicare. Not a pip squeak from the political party that is supposed to support unions.
LOT Polish for years now has been hiring FAs as contractors, kind of like Uber drivers are LOL
I think this is an attempt to get the average age down.
I once flew Finnair to Spain with a Finnish aircrew but cabin personnel from a Spanish manning company.
Young, friendly and obliging,
The usual Finnish cabin crew is much older but efficient and pleasant enough.
Finnair doesnt look flight crews outside of finland they want move those crews under other finish coverment owned company airpro. Where they dont have same salary they dont have so good hotels for over night stands. And second finnair have base all ready in thailand. Every bkk flight they have couple of flight crew thai people. And why flight crew union dont do anything becouse they 1. Are working under finish goverment owned company 2. There work too much womens who dont want to play for same benefigts 3. Finnair is very expensive low cost carrier
I'm guessing the costs of employing domestic workers in a socialist country like Finland are so high that even hiring U.S. workers would save the airline money. I remember getting in a cab in Helsinki and finding out the ride would be over $30 US. I got out and walked the three miles.
There will be much lower overall staff costs as there will be no Finland social security payments /pension contributions to pay . Large pool of staff in USA to choose from. We flew Finnair from Helsinki to Bangkok ,it was fully Thai cabin crew and also Helsinki to Hong Kong which was fully Hong Kong cabin crew. Great service .
Consultants actually replacing management teams as a cost cutting measure on a widespread basis? Inredibly I must have missed that trend somehow.
On a recent AMS-HEL flight with AY, the cabin crew was HKG based (except for the service director, or whatever the highest cabin crew tier is; she was Finnish). Excellent service on the short A350 segment!
Do you even know what socialism is, to be able to refer to it on this context? Besides, that taxi fare also contributes to what's widely known as 'living wage'. The tax component of the fare helps to e.g. run free healthcare and free universities. Some advanced countries see that as a good thing.
At LOT Polish we actually already got rid of contractual cabin crew. Instead we managed to hire very young and enthusiastic subcontractors, who don't need Unions and are happy with what they get. This is the perfect way for the airline to reduce costs, get rid of Unionized crew members and be a leader to follow in Europe. Perhaps Finnair should follow our path and other airlines as well ?