A strike by Finnair cabin crews continued for a second day Friday, grounding most of the airline's international flights, with no end in sight.
The strike, by more than 1,500 cabin staff, began on Thursday morning in protest against the Finnish carrier's plans to recruit personnel through its Estonian subsidiary, Aero, at lower rates than for Finnair cabin staff.
Finnair PLC said it was forced to hire 500 more flight attendants - to meet growing demand on Asian routes - through Aero, because salary levels for Finnair staff were 30 percent higher.
National Conciliator Juhani Salonius, who oversaw talks between the flight attendants' union and representatives of the airline, said the two sides were still too far apart for him to propose a mediation solution after two sessions on Wednesday and Thursday. Talks were scheduled to continue on Friday afternoon.
The government - the airline's main shareholder with 58 percent of its stock - repeated an appeal Thursday to end the strike.
"A prolonged strike would cause considerable inconvenience to air passengers and to Finnish society as a whole," Transport and Communications Minister Susanna Huovinen said. But the government said it would not interfere in the dispute.
Earlier, Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen urged the parties to find a solution so that the strike could be averted before a summit of European Union leaders in southern Finland on Friday.
Vanhanen said the strike would be "extremely damaging" at a time when 1,300 participants and reporters were expected for the one-day EU summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Lahti, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Helsinki.
Finnair considers the strike to be illegal and said it would continue leisure flights and some scheduled traffic in Europe by using code-share airlines, including British Airways, SN Brussels Airlines, Malev and Czech Airlines.
The Finnish carrier said the cancellation of flights causes daily losses of euro2.5 million (US$3 million).
Finnair flies to 50 destinations, including 24 in Europe, with a fleet of 60 aircraft. During the past year, it has increased Asian destinations and announced it will buy 12 new wide-bodied Airbus aircraft for more than euro1 billion (US$1.2 billion), expected to go into service in 2007-2011.
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Finnair: http://www.finnair.fi
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