Coronavirus: Finnair will cancel further 2,400 flights

Finnish flag air carrier Finnair announced that it will cancel more flights due to the coronavirus (koronavirus, in Finnish) situation. The company has already said it has canceled some 1,400 flights this year due to the Covid-19 and its concerns.

The airline now announced it will cancel further 2,400 flights in April. Some of the routes are flown with smaller aircrafts than planned.

In total, Finnair will reduce its traffic capacity on domestic and European flights by 20% in April.

According to the airline, the cancellations will be announced directly to customers who have made the reservations. The cost of those flights may be subject to reimbursement or transfer.

On Monday, Finnair said it had updated the terms and conditions for changing airline tickets due to the coronavirus situation. Under the new terms, travel dates can be changed without a change fee and travel until 20 November 2020.

NORWEGIAN CANCELLING 3000 FLIGHTS 

At the moment, Finnair does not fly at all to Italy, where the coronavirus epidemic has hit Europe hardest.

Another European airline, Norwegian, also announced on Tuesday that will lay off staff and cut around 3,000 flights.

“The company has also put several other measures in place, including temporary layoffs of a significant share of its workforce,” Norwegian said in a statement.

It said the 3,000 flights to be cut between mid-March and mid-June correspond to around 15% of its capacity.

“This is a critical time for the aviation industry, including us at Norwegian,” CEO Jacob Schram said.

The company has previously announced that its booked flights between 6 March and 22 March can be rescheduled if the travel time is between the beginning of March and the end of August.