With the aviation sector struggling to recover from the slump in business, Finland’s national carrier, Finnair is now gearing to slash about 700 jobs, that is, more than 10 per cent of its workforce by March 2021. Till now, the Airline had not resorted to any permanent job cuts. While about 600 roles will be slashed in the country, about 100 will be slashed outside the country.
Finnair mostly operates flights from Europe to Asia, and the downsizing has become necessary for sustenance. It is hoped that the leaner team will give the Airline a competitive edge. About 6,500 of its employees were already temporarily laid off when demand for flights fell. In September, the flight traffic fell by 91 per cent compared to last year.
Countries, such as France and Germany have been offering financial support to help sustain their national carriers, and have increased their stakes in them amidst the slump in business. With quarantine rules varying from country to country and region to region, people are not too keen to travel. In addition, the number of flights have fallen drastically, affecting the aviation sector in a big way and making the recovery process slower.
But the industry has also faced a tangle of inconsistent travel and quarantine rules which airlines partially blame for putting people off taking the reduced number of flights.
