Finnair drops blue and white uniforms, switches to all

The airline has been slashing costs in recent years.

Finnair is switching out blue-and-white uniforms for cabin crew in favour of an all-blue look, as the firm claims that the fabric they had used previously is unavailable.

The company says that cost savings are not the reason for the switch.

Marianne Arteva, who chairs the Finnish Cabin Crew Association, says her members were told that the move was a cost-cutting measure.

Arteva also told Yle News that Finnair staff she represents had noticed a gradual decline in the quality of materials used in staff uniforms.

"I really like our uniform, but it has changed," said Arteva. "It was 2011 when we got these uniforms. The quality of the materials has changed, it's deteriorated over time."

Finnair denies that the materials have changed over the years.

The company confirmed that it would be phasing out blue and white uniforms, with staff in future only able to order monochrome replacements. Current items can still be used, but there will be no replacements with the white fabric.

"We are replacing the white wool fabric used in uniforms with blue due to availability problems," said Pauliina Palttala from Finnair's Communications Department. "Making white wool fabric is more challenging, which also affects costs. For the time being, we have both white-blue and all-blue uniforms."

"This is not a cost savings action, but a practical solution that we have arrived, when our current fabric supplier has not been able to continue to supply the fabric we have used before, and at the same time, we naturally have a continued need for new uniform items for our personnel."

Finnair staff get their uniforms free of charge, and Arteva says that cabin crew get an allowance of around a couple of hundred euros per year to buy replacement uniform items.

Last week the airline announced that it was bringing in specially-designed Karhu trainers that cabin crew would be allowed to wear at work.

Finnair staff then contacted Yle to report that actually staff had to preorder the shoes and pay €89 for them, with a percentage reimbursement due as with any other work shoes they might wear.

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EDIT 22:52 This story has been edited to include Finnair's denials that cost savings are the main reason for the uniform change or that materials had changed over time, and to add detail about staff uniform acquisition.