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Foreign Ministry charters rescue flight from Turkey

Fifty Finns are arriving on a chartered Finnair flight on Wednesday as the national carrier reports huge losses.

Kuvassa on Finnairin lentokone, jonka moottorit on peitetty pusseilla pölyn ja roskan välttämiseksi.
In March Finnair's passenger volumes were down by more than 56 percent over the same time last year. Image: Roni Rekomaa / Lehtikuva
  • Yle News

Finland's Ministry for Foreign Affairs has brokered a deal with national carrier Finnair to fly Finns out of Turkey.

The Finnair flight departing from Antalya in southern Turkey is expected to arrive at Helsinki Airport on Wednesday evening. Those on board the government-sponsored flight have covered the cost of their own tickets.

Turkey now has more confirmed cases of coronavirus than any other country in the Middle East, prompting many Finns in the country to want to leave.

Finnair said only symptom-free people would be let on board and that the crew would aim to leave seats open between passengers.

Travellers arriving from Turkey tonight have been advised to self-isolate for 14 days. So far some 2,500 people have returned to Finland from around the world on flights arranged by the government.

Finnair in freefall

Finnair's first quarter earnings, released on Wednesday, meanwhile showed that just like other airlines, it is also facing a long and bumpy ride to recovery.

The national carrier posted an operating result loss topping 91 million euros year-on-year.

"The coronavirus is a major blow to global aviation and to Finnair. In the current quarter, the majority of our fleet is grounded, and the loss for the second quarter will be considerable, approximately two million euros per day, even after the cost adjustments," Finnair CEO Topi Manner was quoted as saying in a statement.

The company said the situation posed by the coronavirus pandemic "compares to nothing in the entire 100-year history of commercial aviation."