HELSINKI, November 15, 15:23 /ITAR-TASS/. Threats of a strike by personnel of the Finnish airline Finnair have not affected the departure schedule of major Russian carrier Aeroflot from Moscow to Helsinki and from Helsinki to Moscow, an executive of the Aeroflot office in Helsinki told Itar-Tass on Friday.
“An Aeroflot jet is expected to take off from Moscow at 17:55 Moscow Standard Time today and to leave on a return flight at 18:40 EET,” he said.
But a number of Finnair flights to destinations in Russia, including a flight to Moscow and a flight to St. Petersburg, have been cancelled. Also, there will be no flight from Helsinki to Yekaterinburg in the Urals on Saturday.
Earlier reports said Finnair personnel had dropped the threat of going on strike, which was due to begin on Friday afternoon. The decision was taken at a meeting where participants discussed proposals of a state mediator for settling the dispute between the employer and the staff.
The dispute was sparked by plans of company executives to cut spending - a step that might have entailed cuts in the pay of cabin crews but not the corporation’s top managers.
Finnair said in a news release that a compromise solution had been reached at the negotiations and that the strike had been called off. It also promised to revert to normal flight schedules over the weekend.
Possibility of a strike compelled Finnair to cancel more than 130 flights on Friday and Saturday. Executives issued a notice saying the flights marked as "Cancelled" at the airline’s website would not be fulfilled even if the personnel’s protest did not take place.