Finnair Furloughs 36 Pilots September 2025 – May 2026

Finnair, which has been negotiating a new agreement with its pilot union since late last year and which recently had to trim its summer flight schedule due to a pilot shortage (read more here), has now decided to furlough 36 pilots from September 2025 through May 2026.

Finnair claims that it cannot operate one of the two wet leases it operates for Qantas from Singapore and Bangkok to Sydney by rotating cockpit crews and planes on scheduled services from Finland (the cabin crew on these flights is outsourced).

You can access Finnair here.

Finnair’s announcement:

Finnair will furlough 36 long-haul pilots in the autumn

Finnair will furlough 36 pilots operating its long-haul flights. Furloughs will start by the end of September at the latest, and are estimated to last at least until May 2026.

The furloughs are due to changes in Finnair’s wetlease operations for a partner airline. Finnair has operated two routes for a partner as a wetlease operation, and ongoing industrial action by the Finnair Pilots’ Union since December has impacted Finnair’s ability to operate these flights. Going forward, the collaboration continues only on one route.

Finnair has conducted change negotiations according to the Finnish labour law about the possible need for pilot layoffs or furloughs since February.

“Unfortunately, the pilots’ industrial actions have affected our ability to operate our wetlease operations with the reliability that is needed, resulting in changes in our collaboration and consequently, the need to furlough some of our pilots. The situation is unfortunate for all parties”, says Jaakko Schildt, Finnair’s Chief Operating Officer.

Conclusion

These two wet lease services have been out of the scope of the work-to-rule action (no standby or overtime duty) that Finnair’s pilot union has had in place since late last year.

So either Finnair has too many or too few pilots, depending on what press releases you believe. You cannot cancel 160 flights citing a lack of pilots while furloughing 36.

Source