Effects of Helsinki Airport ground handling staff's walkout on our flights on 19 – 20 September 2023
Helsinki Airport's ground handling staff walked out on 19 September 2023, and it affected our short-haul and long-haul operated flights on 19–20 September 2023. Many of our critical ground handling operations were impacted and we were unfortunately forced to cancel several of our flights on 19–20 September 2023.
The staff of the companies producing ground services have returned to work on September 20, 2023. We expect traffic to return to normal during the day. Delays are expected in the handling of baggage. If customer’s baggage is delayed, Finnair will deliver it to the customer as soon as possible and will contact the customer to arrange the delivery.
Finnair is monitoring the situation closely and will update this page with the latest information.
Finnair has proposed a new connection to the customer and automatically updated the ticket. In case the new schedule is not suitable for the customer, the SSR OTHS INVOL element in the booking permits one further free involuntary change and/or cancellation as per the below guidelines.
For bookings made via NDC: same policy applies and for booking handling contact our Agent Help Desk by clicking on the chat icon at the bottom right corner of the page (select NDC Support) for the change or cancellation.
| Event | Ground handlings staff’s walkout at Helsinki Airport |
| Route/market/destination/airports impacted | All Finnair destinations |
| Travel dates impacted | 19-20SEP23 |
| Applies to tickets issued by | 19SEP23 |
New travel dates | +-14 days from original travel date |
| Changes to origin/destination/stopover | Not allowed |
| Airlines allowed | All partners with interline agreement allowed, also avoided partners |
| Booking class to be used | Same or lowest available booking class within same cabin |
| Number of allowed changes | One change free of charge, further changes according to normal ticket rules |
| Mandatory waiver text in OSI element | OS AY CHANGE DUE TO HEL AP GROUND HANDLING STAFF WALKOUT |
| Mandatory indicator in front of fare calculation on the reissued ticket | ‘I’-indicator |
| Mandatory text in the endorsement | INVOL REROUTE to be used when involuntary reissue is due to unexpected reason 2 days or less before departure (together with ‘I’-indicator in the fare calculation) |
| Refunds | Full or partial refund allowed; cancel the booking/remaining segments and refund the ticket directly in your own GDS (if that is not possible, process refund via BSP/ARC) |
| Bookings with connecting flights not in sync with new schedule | We have tried to keep all the connections which are on the same ticket but there might be cases where it is not possible to offer a smooth connection with the changed schedule; postpone the travel to a later flight/date in original booking class or cancel the booking for a full refund, rerouting to other airline is not allowed |
| Ancillaries | The above-mentioned change policy applies also to ancillaries, for the one free change follow the ancillary instructions on Easy. Refund allowed only in case a similar ancillary service is not available on the new flight. Process EMD refunds via BSPlink refund application (ARC users: apply for refund via Refund Web-form, mention “ARC Agent” in the additional information box) |
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More information about the customer communication at finnair.com.