LONDON – Finnair has announced that it will delay the launch of its new Dallas service due to Omicron staff sickness.

The carrier as a whole is reducing its flight schedule by around 20%, and will offer other flight options to its customers.

Commenting on the news was Ole Orver, the Chief Commercial Officer at Finnair:

“Staff sick leave is now significantly impacting Finnair and airports in Finland as well as throughout the world.”

“We aim to meet these resourcing challenges through the cancellation of flights, to avoid last-minute changes and better manage our customers’ expectations.”

“This will give customers more time to prepare for flight schedule changes and adjust their travel plans if needed,” 

“We are sorry for the inconvenience and disruption this may cause to our customers. However, reducing our traffic program is necessary to better offer a smooth travel experience in the face of the expected resource challenges”.

The canceled flights affected are on routes where Finnair operates multiple daily flights such as Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen, Paris, and Rome.

The inaugural service to Dallas will move one month from February to March 27, with the start of the Nagoya flights and added frequencies to Osaka moving to the S22 scheduling.

Finnair will also reduce weekly frequencies to Singapore to twice per week, with Hong Kong flights reducing to thrice weekly.

This of course means that Finnair is now feeling the pinch that other carriers are facing due to the high surge in Omicron cases.

It is of hope that airlines like Finnair be able to restore such services in time for the busy summer period.