Traffic Rights

“To fulfil the long-haul Asian strategy – as I will elaborate on in the Materialities dimension – of Finnair, traffic rights are important. Traffic rights can be bilateral agreements between two states – multilateral if over two states are involved – in relation to commercial air transport (Gidwitz, 1980, p. 135). The bilateral agreements can relate to the kind of service; scheduled, charter or cargo, and the agreement allow airlines to fly to a given airport or over a given territory (Gidwitz, 1980, p. 135) (see section: 2.2 Development Within the European Aviation Market). As stated in section: 2.2, open sky agreements have been negotiated to remove different forms for restrictions, but this does not apply to all parts of the world. Consequently, Finland must Finland must negotiate traffic rights with Russia, China and most of the Asian countries in order to land or fly over their territories. Therefore, a good relationship with Russia and China is important, as stated:

“The ministry of transportation handles the negotiations or sets the meetings with the Russians – they did it last time in the beginning of March. You need to do it all the time or at least annually” (Analyst, Finavia 2016: 40:40)”⁷⁵

“The Head of Traffic Planning, Finnair, and Analyst, Finavia states that Finland actually has a comparative advantage compared to other European airlines in relation to traffic rights in Russia since Finland and Russia are neighbours:

“In relation Russia, we are neighbours – there is another relationship, Denmark also have another relation to Germany.”

[Translated from Danish] (Head of Traffic Planning, Finnair 2016:

46:56)

“Finland is a good neighbor for Russia and we have managed to negotiate enough of those overflight rights – that is crucial for the

74This is paragraph is copied from the article “An understanding of how aviation is handled in Helsinki and Finland” (Bloch & Lassen, 2016, p. 13)

75 This paragraph draws on formulations and thoughts presented in the article: “An understanding of how aviation is handled in Helsinki and Finland” and is changed or updated with: text part related to open sky agreements (Bloch & Lassen, 2016, p. 14).

whole business… For many other countries it is not so easy to negotiated with the Russian” (Analyst, Finavia 2016: 36:54)”⁷⁶

“It is not always easy to negotiate traffic rights and, in this sense, Finland does not have that much to offer in relation to other European countries since its local market is not very strong. In this context, it is accepted that development and negotiation of traffic rights require a long-time horizon. Manager, Market Access and Aeropolitics, Finnair states:

“[In] all of Asia except Japan [you need to negotiate traffic rights], so it a risk and it is a challenge. It kind of forces you to think really long term and advance step by step and then of course … The point to point interest in Helsinki is quite limited, so to get traffic rights we always need to work quite a bit and have the support of local airports or local administrators – that is one option. Another option is working together with another carrier in that country. Another is having very high political support” (Manager, Market Access and Aeropolitics, Finnair 2016: 34:08) (Bloch & Lassen, 2016, p. 14)”⁷⁷

“Since Finland is not a very attractive point-to-point market, the development and negotiation of traffic rights are a long ongoing practice that requires time. Sometimes the development of traffic rights requires the development of relationships with other airlines, airports, or local and national politicians. An example of such a practice is the establishment of the ‘Sister Airport Relationship’ with Capital Airports Holding Company in China, which is the largest airport operator in China with more than 40 airports in China (Finavia, 2016b). These two practises with traffic negotiation and building relations to other airports in order to promote aviation can be seen as an element that supports the discourse of how important aviation is for the Finnish society.”⁷⁸

“Another practice that supports the discourse of the importance of aviation is illustrated in relation to pressuring cabin crew at Finnair. The political attention towards a promotion of Finnair can be seen in the approach or practise in relation to the optimizing of Finnair – as I will return to this optimization of Finnair in the section 8.6 The Materialities Dimension. One of the core issues in the turnaround for Finnair was a cost reduction including a potential outsourcing of cabin crew. After a long period of negotiations, the solution was that outsourcing was put to a hold for a period and it was agreed that on e.g. some Asian flights, there should be some Asian crew.

76This is paragraph is copied from the article: “An understanding of how aviation is handled in Helsinki and Finland” (Bloch & Lassen, 2016, p. 14).

77 This is paragraph is copied from the article: “An understanding of how aviation is handled in Helsinki and Finland” (Bloch & Lassen, 2016, p. 14).

78 This is paragraph is copied from the article: “An understanding of how aviation is handled in Helsinki and Finland” (Bloch & Lassen, 2016, p. 14)

Industrial Relations Officer, Cabin union (SLSY) thinks there were hard negotiations with Finnair because the politician was not always on the cabin crew’s side, as she states it:

“Most of the politicians think Finnair is very important for the economy so they are willing to sacrifice the cabin crew” (Industrial Relations Officer, Cabin union (SLSY) 2016 19:12)”⁷⁹

Developing Finnair is to some extent depending on the political attitude towards the company. As this paragraph illustrates, that Finnair is within the political system recognized, as one of the key drivers for the production of aeromobilities in Finland.

The statement from the Industrial Relations Officer, Cabin union (SLSY), articulates the political support to Finnair. This practice is related to a discourse that place aviation also has local conflicts that need to be addressed and therefore the production of aeromobilities is a matter of local and global events and relations.

An interesting perspective that can support the discourse related to the importance of aviation in Finland.

As I will argue for here is that even there is articulations and practices that indicated a discourse of the importance of aviation, I will argue that when aviation itself solve an actual problem the different associated cost to aviation is much easier to counter balance in the political system. As Manager, Market Access and Aeropolitics, Finnair states that most politicians understand that domestic air traffic and long-haul traffic together solve a problem with coherence within Finland and in relation to Europe.

This articulation supports the discourse that Finland is an Island:

“Finland is a country of long domestic distances, the cities and counties need domestic travel. [Politicians] are aware that many of the domestic routes will not make profit, even if it was a low cost carrier that did operate them. The only way of keeping [the domestic]

routes alive is if it is part of a wider network airline and brings network value. And the only way of doing that is if Finnair has a long-haul strategy. So I think members of parliament have acknowledged that the Asian strategy is a risk, but it is probably the only way anybody could see Finnair as an independent airline in the future –

79 This paragraph draws on formulations and thoughts presented in the article: “An understanding of how aviation is handled in Helsinki and Finland” and is changed or updated with: The initial part in this paragraph is elaboration, however from the words: “One cost” and the rest of this paragraph is directly copy from the article (Bloch & Lassen, 2016, p. 12).

and as a result be able to serve the domestic market” (Manager, Market Access and Aeropolitics, Finnair 2016 27:14)⁸⁰

This challenge with coherence is associated with the narrative stating: Finland is an Island – as Manager, Market Access, and Aeropolitics, Finnair elaborates:

“[In the] political world where big narratives always have the power… one is ‘Finland is an Island’, if you look at the map it is true, the long Russian border and then the Baltic sea. It is in the psyche of every Finn, in order to go to other parts of the world you either take a ship or plane, which obviously raises the importance of international ports and airports” (Manager, Market Access and Aeropolitics, Finnair 2016: 9:34)⁸¹

This articulation: “Finland is an Island” is also recognized by other interviewed persons:

“We have realized that in many aspect of transport we are sort of an Island” (Advisor, Finland Chamber of Commerce 2016: 12:02)

“Finland is an Island, and therefore we need good aviation contact around the world” (General Secretary, Finish aviation union (IAU), 2016: 14:39)

This section analysing the policies related to how aeromobilities and the hub function in Helsinki are produced indicates various objectives that constitute the dynamic causalities along the practices and articulations that supports the discourse related to

“Finland is an Island”. Policies elements such as Finnair’s Asian strategy and Finland’s Air Transport Strategy 2015-2030 along the political attention towards traffic right negotiation are elements that need to be understood in order to understand the making of hub airports in Helsinki. Next, I will analyse the Materialities dimension to further understand the production of aeromobilities.