Finnair and the Spanish recruitment and employment company Adecco have agreed the cabin crew of approximately 60 people serving on Finnair’s Barcelona and Madrid routes.
The crew will join the Helsinki-based carrier’s payroll on 1 April 2019 but continue to be based in Spain.
“This model better supports our goals, and creates possibilities to further develop the service experience on our Barcelona and Madrid routes,” said Finnair vice president of inflight experience, Eveliina Huurre.
“During the summer season we are adding one daily frequency on our Barcelona route, and our Finland-based crew will also serve on this route.”
Finnair’s Barcelona and Madrid routes have been operated with Finnair’s pilots and subcontracted Adecco cabin crew since 2013.
The airline will also lease an Airbus A321 aircraft from its oneworld partner Iberia for its Madrid route starting on 1 April, 2019. The lease will last for a duration of 12 months and will cover a shortage of aircraft as Finnair continues to grow its operations.
With the leased aircraft, the flight deck crew comes from Iberia, while the cabin crew is Finnair’s. However, during the first operating month of the lease, the flights will be operated with Iberia’s cabin crew, and there will be one Finnair crew member on board to support the delivery of Finnair’s customer service concept.
“Leasing an aircraft from our trusted oneworld partner Iberia supports our growth and the need to increase our aircraft capacity during the upcoming months,” said Finnair chief operating officer, Jaakko Schildt.
Finnair’s service concept will be followed on the flights operated by Iberia. Finnair will inform customers with bookings to and from Madrid about the carrier change. Customers are also entitled to change their travel dates or cancel their booking because of the change in carrier, by contacting Finnair’s customer service.
