PIlots' Dispute Opens Skies to Competitors
Image: YLE
A prolonged pilots’ dispute could prompt the take off of a restructuring in Finland’s internal aviation industry. The tourist industry in northern Finland says aviation is too biased towards the national carrier Finnair and hopes newcomers will enter the skies. Both Blue1, belonging to the SAS concern and Finncomm are examining the opportunities for expansion after the current dispute.
Finncomm Airlines made aviation history on Monday by the start of its regular service from Helsinki to Oulu and Rovaniemi. Return tickets for the flights were sold out and there’s no shortage of passengers at least while the Finnair dispute goes on.
Finncomm now operates regular flights weekly to several northern resorts. However, the company’s management is reluctant to forecast any changes if the strike draws on.
“If the strike is prolonged, I believe there will be wide ranging consequences for many involved”, says Finncomm Airlines’ CEO Juhani Pakari.
Both Finncomm and Blue1 fly to destinations in the far north and provide competition to Finnair which operates services to six airports in the far north of Finland. This represents a considerable slice of its domestic network of eleven airports.
Domestic holiday traffic to Lapland is heavily dependent on Finnair. The current strike could, however, change that. CEO Jyrki Niva of tour operator, Lapin Safarit hopes for greater competition in flights to and from the province.
YLE