Grim warning from Hienonen
Finnair ceo Jukka Hienonen has warned the airline might be forced to cut a third of its routes because of the fall in demand.
He told a Finnish newspaper: "Today we fly to more than one hundred destinations. If worst comes to worst, we will need to cut one third... of our routes.
"We hope that cutting our routes by nine percent (as announced earlier) will be enough (but) we are not forced to keep any route. It is not profitable to fly with empty aircraft."
Mr Hienonen, speaking to the Iltalehti daily, said profits from the carrier's long haul Asia routes were enabling it to keep 40 routes in Europe.
Without them, this figure could be halved.
Finnair warned last year it may have to cut 400 jobs if the global downturn got worse.
It has also temporary lay offs for two weeks for 2,000 staff to save money.
Although oil prices have fallen since last summer's high, Mr Hienonen told the newspaper that this still was not enough.
"The oil price is down now and that has decreased fuel costs, but business travel has fallen sharply due to the recession.
"I would have preferred expensive oil and (high) demand.
"Oil should cost $100 per barrel. That would eliminate unsound airlines that are now kept up and running artificially.
"Early this year will show how low Finnair will go," he said.
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