Finnair, Finland’s national airline, cancelled 40 flights after seat covers on some of its Airbus A321 planes were washed in water, an action that has -in any case- linked its name with the words “cancellation” and “delay”.
The airline has temporarily suspended flights of eight A320 family aircraft for additional inspections after the removable seat covers were washed with water, and the manufacturer has noted that this cleaning method may affect the fire protection standards of the material.
“As part of the ongoing airworthiness monitoring, we observed that the cabin seat covers have been washed with water and the impact of this cleaning method on fire protection has not been adequately verified. We are very sorry for the uncertainty and inconvenience this situation may cause you and we will do our best to minimize the impact on your trip,” Finnair said in a statement.
Cancellation of over 40 flights
The airline confirmed that it was forced to cancel about 20 flights per day on Monday, October 13, and Tuesday, October 14, affecting up to 5,000 passengers, in order to conduct additional inspections on the affected aircraft. The issue affects eight A321 aircraft in the A320 family fleet.
According to flightradar24, seven of the eight aircraft have been identified. These include OH-LZM, OH-LZN, OH-LZP, and OH-LZU, which were already in Helsinki when the decision to suspend flights was made.
The OH-LZO was flown back to Helsinki from Oulu, while the OH-LZR and OH-LZT returned from Malaga and London, respectively. The possible eighth aircraft, OH-LZS, has been parked in Prague since September 28 for maintenance.
Three of the grounded aircraft have already been scheduled to resume flights, indicating that Finnair flights may normalize quickly once safety checks are completed.
Currently, the airline is dealing with one of the most unusual problems that have occurred in the air transportation sector in recent years: a case where overly thorough cleaning led to flight cancellations.
