Two-thirds of Finnair flights cancelled after postal strike

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Finnair is being forced to cancel two-thirds of its flight owing to disruption from a labour dispute involving the country's postal service.

Although the Finnish flag-carrier is not part of the dispute, the aviation labour union IAU is conducting a support strike on 25 November.

This support strike will have "major impacts" on Finnair flight operations, the airline says, with vital services at Helsinki-Vantaa airport – such as ramp handling, fuelling, catering and maintenance – being affected.

Finnair says it cancelled 26 services on 24 November, ahead of the industrial action, and expects to cancel nearly 260 others on 25 November – about two-thirds of the 377 planned.

The cancelled flights include both short-haul European links and a number of long-haul services, including those to San Francisco, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Bangkok.

Finnair chief operating officer Jaakko Schildt says the knock-on effect of the postal strike is affecting 20,000 of the airline's customers.

"We are doing our best to mitigate the impacts to them," he says. "We are working to find suitable re-routings for customers impacted by this, but re-routing such a large number of customers unfortunately takes some time."

IAU says its members will "cease all work" during the stoppage, but says the action will end when they return to their shifts on 26 November.