Finnair is first airline to establish corporate blog

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Finnair launches corporate blogs at blogs.finnair.com

Finnair is among the first global airlines to establish a corporate blog.

"An airline is at the same time a complex machine and a dynamic network consisting of thousands of people, providing a service involving enormous responsibilities: for business, holidays, safety and the economy. It is these topics that we will be discussing in our blogs. Please drop in to hear our story," says Christer Haglund, Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications, welcoming readers to the site.

Various experts from within the company, including the company CEO, will contribute to the blog pages at address http://blogs.finnair.com. The first postings handle environmental, service and production issues.

"The general public is greatly interested in aviation," says Christer Haglund. "The aim of our blogs is to increase transparency and serve our stakeholders better by providing views from behind-the-scenes."

Finnair's traffic network extends to over 100 destinations worldwide. "Airlines are global enterprises which are truly present in different parts of the world," says Haglund.

The blogs will also describe Finnair's wide range of expertise and provide strong support for issues related to aviation. "Finnair is continuously involved in close interaction with the whole community," Haglund continues.

"Our company includes a wide variety of influential players, whether it's a question of the environment, the economy or politics. The blog is a relaxed, direct, interactive and topical way of communicating with our most important stakeholders."

In his blog, for example, Ville Iho, who is responsible for Production Management, explains why adverse weather conditions can have a serious effect on air traffic. "Traffic programmes, and through them the schedules of tens of thousands of customers, cannot be made according to weather forecasts. An airline cannot tell its passengers to eat their morning toast more quickly because a flight has to leave in accordance with its de-icing schedule. Unfortunately, the dynamic in any case only works in favour of delays," he
writes.

Kati Ihamäki, Finnair's Vice President Sustainable Development, discusses carbon emissions in her blog. "Environmental issues are still something of an ego-trip instead of an eco-trip. The choice of an airline with a modern fleet, an uncongested airport and non-stop routes can save fuel by as much as 30%, resulting in an environmentally more sustainable choice. Yet decisions are still based on financial criteria," explains Ihamäki.

"The threat of carbon emissions is a real one in many sectors. In the world of aviation, it is still on the cards that no global agreement will be achieved on this issue. Our production facilities - in other words, our aircraft - can move if necessary to a new location at 850 km per hour. That's not the case with for instance paper mills."

Internal blogs have been written within Finnair for three years, instigated originally by CEO Jukka Hienonen. The blogs have proved hugely popular as an interactive channel.

Finnair Plc Communications 17.2.2009

[m2ss]

I must argue with this news, because Estonian Air has blog already from May 2008: http://blog.estonian-air.ee/. Ok it's in Estonian but still.