Finnair Q1 operating loss deepens amid labour dispute and trade tensions

HELSINKI (Reuters) -Airline Finnair on Tuesday reported a significant decline in first-quarter earnings due to a labour dispute with its pilots and warned that global trade tensions could dampen travel demand.

Finnair, majority owned by Finland's government, seeks to rebound from the twin blows dealt by the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's airspace closure that hit the group's lucrative Europe-to-Asia business.

Its comparable operating loss for the January-March period deepened to 62.6 million euros ($71.28 million) from a loss of 11.6 million euros in the same period a year ago.

The company said that industrial action negatively affected the result by around 22 million euros.

Despite these challenges, Finnair maintained its 2025 outlook, although it acknowledged the risk of global trade tensions.

"The threat of trade wars and uncertainty related to economic development have increased significantly, which may weaken demand," CEO Turkka Kuusisto said in a statement.

Finnair had more passengers in January and February than at the same time last year but saw traffic decrease in March due to workers taking industrial action during collective bargaining.

The collective labour agreement between Finnair and its pilots ended in September last year and talks for a new one have been ongoing since. To put pressure on Finnair, the pilots have used standby and overtime bans as well as short strikes.

($1 = 0.8783 euros)

(Reporting by Essi Lehto, editing by Stine Jacobsen)