Can Finnair’s new CEO navigate turbulence and take the airline higher?

Finnair has had to adapt to several huge challenges in the last five years, including the pandemic and then the war in Ukraine which closed Russian airspace. So, how does its CEO see the future of Finnair?

Finnair’s new CEO, Turkka Kuusisto, was appointed in April 2024 having previously been the Chief Executive of the Finnish postal service for four years. Despite not having airline experience, aviation was obviously in his blood, thanks to his father, who was a pilot for Finnair. When his father was told that Turkka had the CEO job, he replied that it was the second-best job in the airline after being a pilot.

Finnair

A key moment in Finnair’s history was in 1976, with the launch of its first long-haul route to Bangkok, marking the beginning of its strategic focus on Asian markets. This continued with the introduction of non-stop flights to Tokyo in 1983, solidifying Finnair’s position as a key player in connecting Europe and Asia.

All this changed dramatically with the start of the Ukrainian war and Russian airspace closure. The conflict caused Finnair’s flights to the Far East to be substantially reduced due to the consequences of the much longer flight times. Being unable to use its previous polar routings made some Asian routes unsustainable due to needing four pilots instead of two and two aircraft per day on the route instead of one. Before the war, Finnair had 40 flights to Japan per week and 35 to China, which has now been scaled back. However, Finnair still regards Helsinki as an important hub for Asia, with Japan having 20 weekly frequencies. Finnair even recently started flights to Nagoya, Japan as a destination and is the only airline flying from there to Europe.

Finnair

One key concern post-2022 was finding a use for its Airbus 330s, which could no longer fly most of the Asian routes with their extended flight times. Instead, Finnair has had to find new uses for them on routes in North America and Europe. It has also leased some Airbus 330s to Qantas and Qatar Airways.

In 2025, London is now the airline’s biggest route by seat number with six flights per day. Two flights per day are on a wide-body Airbus 350s with the new AirLounge flatbeds in business class, as well as four narrow-body aircraft. Finnair’s original route to London started 70 years ago in 1954 when a 44-seat aircraft went between Helsinki and London three times a week. This went via Dusseldorf and Copenhagen and took a painful 8 hours compared to a sub-three-hour average journey today. 

Finnair also made cuts in many areas to survive while working out its new route strategy. These included a smaller corporate headquarters and multiple initiatives to become more productive and cost-competitive. Luckily the new strategy worked and saw Finnair post its highest profit for over a decade in 2023.  

While Finnair has successfully pivoted its previous business model of being one of the fastest ways to Asia from Europe with its polar routes, the end of the war in Ukraine would be a tremendous boost for the company. With a change of President in the U.S., some analysts believe that the war may be close to ending after 3 years. Russia is gaining ground more quickly than at any time since it launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, according to BBC News.

However, President Trump has made no secret of his desire to help end the war, initially promising to end the conflict within 24 hours of taking office. While this was unlikely to happen, it does show he has lost patience with America’s costly support to Ukraine and is keen to broker an end to the conflict. 

“The numbers of dead young soldiers lying on fields all over the place are staggering,” Trump said. “It’s crazy what’s taking place.”

CEO Turkka Kuusisto told Fortune, “Achieving peace in Ukraine is the most important target, for the sake of Ukraine and Europe.

Should the Russian airspace open at some point, we would evaluate the situation based on the facts and forecasts at that point. We have maintained our strong presence in key Asian megacities and continue to serve 11 Asian destinations even with the Russian airspace closed. Our network is now more balanced, and we continue to develop it.”

While the world waits to see if the war will finally come to an end, the new CEO has his eyes firmly on his customers. Two new roles have been created within the senior management team. Simon Large will head Finnair’s new Customer Experience, Loyalty and Marketing Unit, and the other role will focus on operations. The customer experience role will look at every aspect of the airline’s overall experience, such as friction points in the customer journey and what matters most to customers. In-flight food, fares such as the new business class lite, baggage allowances and more will be within the remit of this new position.

Whatever the outcome of the Ukraine war, Finnair has proved that it has a resilient and agile business that can adapt quickly to changing circumstances. With 2023 being one of the best years for the airline, the future certainly looks bright despite the challenging environment.