Finland’s national airline Finnair said Sunday it was forced to cancel 276 flights scheduled for Sunday and Monday after attempts to settle a labour dispute at the Finnish postal service failed, leading several Finnish labour unions to join a solidarity strike Monday. Some 9,000 employees of the publicly owned postal service Posti have been on a two-week strike against pay cuts and several Finnish employee unions are taking actions to support the strike. Finnair said around 20,000 travellers would be affected by its cancellations, caused by the Finnish airport workers’ union’s decision to join the solidarity strike on Monday if no resolution to the postal service dispute was found by Sunday. Finnair spokeswoman Paivyt Tallqvist said: “Our current estimate is that we could operate some 120 of our 377 flights scheduled for tomorrow.”<br/>
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BA has agreed to a provisional pay settlement with its pilots, heading off the threat of Christmas disruption and bringing to an end one of the most damaging disputes in its history. The pilots union, Balpa, has recommended a deal worth 12% over three years to its members, more than a year after talks started and following strikes in September that cost the airline tens of millions of pounds a day. Pilots will still have to vote to accept the deal, which includes guarantees underpinning pay rises to inflation but does not have the profit-sharing scheme they had demanded. The deal also offers improvements to working conditions, including rosters. Balpa’s general secretary, Brian Strutton, said: “We can confirm that Balpa, BA and Acas have put together a new pay and conditions proposal and, subject to final checks, Balpa expects it will shortly be consulting its 4,000 BA members on them.” The apparent breakthrough comes after thinly veiled criticism of BA’s management of the strikes from Willie Walsh, the chief executive of BA’s parent company, IAG. He said last month there was a “deal to be done”, adding that he “probably understood [pilots’] issues better” than BA’s current boss, Álex Cruz. The pilots voted by more than 90% to take industrial action in the original ballot, whose mandate was due to expire in January, so acceptance of the new deal brokered through the conciliation service Acas is far from guaranteed. However, BA said: “We welcome this positive step.”<br/>
Airbus is undertaking repairs to a BA Airbus A350-1000 after the twinjet was damaged during the final stages of the production process. The aircraft suffered an "incident", the airframer confirms, although it has not disclosed the nature of the event or the location of the damage. Airbus says it is "working with the customer" with the aim of delivering the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-powered aircraft in December. The A350-1000 was reportedly parked in a paint shop and sustained surface damage from one of the many pieces of equipment that surround the aircraft in such facilities. "Airbus has assured us that the aircraft will be fully repaired and delivered shortly," says BA, without elaborating. Although the carrier has not identified the aircraft involved, BA had been expecting to receive four A350-1000s this year. Two have already been delivered and a third is already painted and undergoing flight tests, suggesting that the fourth – to be registered G-XWBD – is the one affected. BA has 18 A350-1000s on order, which will be delivered over 2019-22.<br/>
Japan Airlines has launched a campaign that uses personalisation across an individual’s preferences, intent and the relevance of the platform. To do this, the brand has tasked Ogilvy with creating dynamic creative and Mindshare Singapore to take on the media buying. According to Ogilvy, the strategy is to create digital creative that can use audience emotion as they use different digital touchpoints. Using adaptive content is key to getting the attention that a band needs, according to the agency. Chris Riley, chief executive of Ogilvy Singapore, said: “It has never been more important to deliver the right message at the right time for our clients. However, it has become more complex than ever to achieve this goal. By combining creativity with technology we can produce authentic branded content and messages for multiple audiences across various platforms. We are thrilled to be in a position to help JAL with a dynamic content optimization approach that will drive cost-effective business results.” The ‘Fly Once, Fly Always’ campaign is the first activity since JApan Airlines appointed Ogilvy as its agency this year in July and it will run for six months.<br/>