Finnair has announced that several flights will be canceled as the week kicks off, adding to the travel disruptions many passengers are facing.
On Sunday, the national carrier revealed plans to scrap two round-trips on Monday: a morning flight from Stockholm to Bergen and back, along with an evening service from Helsinki to London, which was scheduled to return to Helsinki on Tuesday.
In the wake of these cancellations, Finnair has reassigned hundreds of passengers to other flights, attempting to mitigate the impact of the disruption. However, this reshuffling has been complicated by the airline’s need to replace its Airbus A321s with smaller aircraft, leading to a shortfall in capacity for ticket holders. As a result, some travelers will find themselves switched to earlier or later flights.
This upheaval follows an unusual maintenance mishap involving the seat covers of Finnair’s A321s. In a surprising turn of events, the covers were washed with water, raising concerns about their fire resistance. Consequently, the affected planes have been grounded as the airline prioritizes safety and verifies new replacements for the covers.
Finnair is optimistic about returning all eight sidelined aircraft to service within the coming week, though the chaos has already impacted the travel plans of approximately 12,000 passengers.
This article was updated at 4:15 PM to include the latest flight cancellations.