Turkka Kuusisto is Finnair’s first CEO taking office during the new normal for the Nordic airline. Since Russian airspace became off limits for Western carriers almost three years ago when Russia attacked Ukraine, Finnair’s entire and formerly lucrative business model fell apart.
Helsinki is no longer the shortest connection hub between Europa and East Asia, rather the opposite, the necessary detours are even longer than from most other hubs now. Despite this unfortunate development also threatening Finnair’s well-being, the Finnish airline has been able to make an impressive recovery by shifting and adapting its strategy swiftly. Turkka Kuusisto took over the CEO post in April 2024 and only now starts to talk to international media about his take on the top job.
The 45-year-old son of a former Finnair pilot had been previously heading Posti Group, the Finnish postal service and largest logistics company around the Baltic Sea region. He sees many similarities between the two, as both are service companies moving goods and people. And both are extremely meaningful companies for the wider society, he says. “Both Finnair and the logistics companies keep the wheel spinning.”
In an exclusive interview for AeroTime, aviation journalist Andreas Spaeth talks to Turkka Kuusisto about his efforts to redefine Finnair’s course in a much-changed environment.
Andreas Spaeth: One of your first big tasks here as Finnair’s new CEO is to update the company’s strategy. Can you share any insights into how that might look like?
Turkka Kuusisto: We will communicate about the updated strategy in early 2025. The process is on schedule, but we need to add a few more touches for the final outcome. It is very important for us, after 101 years in operation and after the recent double crisis of the pandemic and closure of the Russian airspace, to define what role Finnair will play in the so-called new world order and what’s the purpose of our existence. That’s an effort we’ve been engaged in over my first months in office. We are the fifth-oldest airline in the world and I think right now is a good time to crystalize why we do exist. And then develop our strategy accordingly.
Spaeth: Are you confident that Finnair will be able to extract this sense of purpose in a world that has changed dramatically, especially for Finnair?
Kuuisisto: Yes, I am, because both 2023 and 2024 delivered ample concrete evidence that Finnair has done a fantastic job after the double crisis. The organisation has been able to redesign and rebalance the network after the closure or Russian airspace. 2023 was an extraordinarily strong year for Finnair and the entire industry and 2024 proved to be very stable in terms of executing the existing strategy. We are at cruising altitude and can now start to build the next chapter in Finnair’s future.
Spaeth: Which assets, which strengths are enabling Finnair to adapt so quickly?
Kuusisto: There are many characteristics demonstrating that the organisation has been extremely resilient and determined. They have learnt to be more agile, this can-do attitude, I guess, is in the Finnish DNA. It’s a team effort of a lot of different activities that have been implemented very decisively.
Spaeth: Can you give us some examples?
Kuusisto: Yes, let’s take the North Atlantic for instance. We are flying much more westbound long-haul than we used to do. The new Helsinki to Dallas/Fort Worth route, for example, has been a great success for us, during the current winter season we fly it daily, next summer we will fly eleven times per week. We also fly more to Seattle, having daily flights to Chicago, North America has become a much more important destination for us. But at the same time, you have to keep in mind that we have eleven destinations in Asia. None of the peer companies in northern Europe has such a footprint in Asia. In the winter season we fly 13 times weekly to Japan, for example. In summer we will add capacity and offer 25 flights to Japan per week. We are still an extremely relevant connector between Asia and Europe.
Spaeth: In your career you didn’t work in aviation before, but your father was a Finnair captain. How did you view Finnair before, and did your perception change since you took over the CEO post?
Kuusisto: I have always followed Finnair, it’s been a part of my life since my birth. As a son of a pilot, you understand what everyday life as a pilot is like, and I’ve often been in the jump seat flying with him, the MD-11 was the last aircraft I flew on that way. Before I joined Finnair, I was already a very frequent flier, holding a Platinum card for ten years in a row. And it was always on my wish list, that maybe one day, I could lead Finnair. Because it’s an extremely important company for Finland and all Finns. A complex industry and a big organisation in transformation, that was always an interest of mine. I knew some of the Finnair spirit because of my family origin. Ever since I joined the company, I haven’t found any big surprises. But I had very many positive findings.
Spaeth: Is there anything you’d like to change in Finnair?
Kuusisto: The major difference that I want to make is that we will genuinely become more customer-centric and oriented. For various and maybe obvious reasons, the voice of the customer was not heard or maybe not paid enough attention to during the crisis time when you needed to take a lot of quick, rapid and decisive actions to save the company. Therefore, it’s time now to develop this great operational platform, but with additional emphasis on understanding customer’s needs today and tomorrow.
Spaeth: How important is the closer cooperation with Qatar Airways for Finnair and what is the plan going forward?
Kuusisto: I would position this as a transition partnership. After the closure of Russian airspace, we did have some overcapacity, the Airbus A330 can’t fly to Asia if it can’t fly over Russia. All of a sudden, we had excess capacity, while our Oneworld partner Qatar Airways didn’t have enough capacity to recover after the crisis. We found a solution in which we deployed three A330s to fly to Doha from Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki. From mid-January, the two aircraft flying from Copenhagen and Stockholm will be redeployed into our own network while we most probably will continue the Helsinki to Doha operation. So, it has been a kind of a strategic partnership, but it is pretty much related to the transition of over- and undercapacity after the pandemic.
Spaeth: What about your activities leasing out long-haul aircraft to operators like Discover Airlines in Germany or Qantas?
Kuusisto: Our number one priority is to fly our aircraft in our own network. We have eight A330s in our fleet, and if we, like after the Russian airspace closure, have no useful way to deploy them in our own network, the Qantas example is a great one. We have wet-leased three A330s flying from Sydney to Bangkok and Sydney to Singapore, these will be transferred to dry leases from the winter season 2025/26. Our pilots fly rosters from Helsinki to Bangkok on the A350, then after resting, an A330 from Bangkok to Sydney, and then the same returning home. A tour of nine days, some pilots really wait for their turn to fly this route. The cabin crews come from Qantas. And these are the only remaining aircraft that we lease out. We fly our A330s now to New York, Miami and Dubai.
Spaeth: Is the rebalancing of the network still work in progress, or have you done all the necessary readjustments?
Kuusisto: The big rebalancing of the network is now done. Now it’s time for continuous further improvement and optimization. One concrete example is that we decided to further develop the Dallas route. The big pivot is now done.
Spaeth: What about the Chinese market, which has become a weak spot for you?
Kuusisto: In China, we now fly two weekly frequencies to Shanghai, in the summer that will double. But as long as the Russian airspace is closed, we are absolutely unable to get back to pre-pandemic levels in traffic to China. With Chinese carriers flying through Russian airspace, the playing field is not level, that’s a huge competitive advantage for them.
Spaeth: What about fleet development, your latest A350 just arrived?
Kuusisto: Yes, the 18th, Whisky Tango (registration OH-LWT, the editor), landed on December 17th, 2024. The last one will then enter our fleet in the third quarter of 2026. Currently we have 80 aircraft in our fleet and the widebodies are extremely modern, with all cabins having been upgraded to the new Business Class and Premium Economy cabins. The A330 is a very capital cost-efficient aircraft which needs to fly on suitable routes. The next decision we have to take is the short-haul narrowbody renewal. But that’s a rather limited scope of our fleet, less than 20%. We have five A319s and ten A320s, whose average age is somewhere around 23 years, so obviously we need to do something here. There is no timeline yet, but some news can be expected within the next fiscal year. First and foremost, we need to finalize our strategy process and the longer-term network plan and then evaluate which aircraft type supports our thinking the best.
Spaeth: What is the plan with your regional affiliate Norra?
Kuusisto: Norra is a production or operational platform for us, its aircraft are owned or leased by Finnair. So, all their fleet, or in our current case cabin renewal investments are the decision of Finnair. Norra is very important for us because it is a great vehicle for regional flying and connecting destinations not supporting operations of bigger narrowbody types. One of our upcoming strategic decisions is to see how much we need to increase the role of regional flying. As the long-haul network has changed because of Russia, there might be different needs and customer bases to fill those widebodies. Our twelve ATR 72 turboprops are operated by Norra as well our twelve E190s. They complement the mainline equipment very well on some routes like between Helsinki and Oulu, where we use A321s in the mornings and ATRs at mid-day frequencies.
Spaeth: Finnair had some pilot’s strikes recently, has that labour conflict been solved now?
Kuusisto: We are negotiating a new collective labour agreement since August, after the old one has ended. It has taken a bit longer than what we expected and hoped for. Unfortunately, the union took industrial action with two days of strikes in December as well as overtime and standby bans. I hope we will find a solution as quickly as possible, as I would like to minimize all disruptions to our customers. But at the same time, we need to find agreements that are sustainable.
