Finnair to discontinue checking in luggage of competitor airlines to final destinations

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Finland's national carrier Finnair has announced it will discontinue checking in luggage other than its own passengers or those of its One World Alliance partners to final destinations from Finland.
      The reforms, which will be put into force on March 25th, will complicate the air travel of hundreds of thousands of Finns each year.
      Traditionally airlines have checked in the luggage of all passengers to their final destinations.
      Now Finnair has decided that only its own passengers and those using the services of its One World Alliance partners are fit to enjoy this privilege.
     
If one decides to fly, say, from Joensuu in Finland, to a world destination via Helsinki, and if only the Joensuu-Helsinki flight is with Finnair but the connection is with another carrier outside the One World Alliance, the passenger will henceforth have to pick up his luggage in Helsinki and go through the check-in and the security check once again.
      The same goes for flights where the change takes place, say, in London or Frankfurt, and the connecting flight is with another alliance.
      "Finnair aims to increase its own business and the business of its partners. Therefore we feel it is appropriate to concentrate the best possible service to our own and our partners' customers", Finnair service production manager Markku Remes explains.
      According to Remes, this is a worldwide tendency: companies group themselves into alliances and for commercial reasons aim to give better service to their own customers. This is a way of complicating things, for example, for budget airlines.
     
Joensuu entrepreneur Kim Väisänen is anything but pleased with the decision. "What an outrage. This complicates the sensible planning of business trips", he charges.
      "Finnair rarely wins bidding contests. It is restricting free competition, if Finnair uses its market leader position in Joensuu to try to force more people to become its customers."
      On Wednesday Väisänen filed a complaint against Finnair with the Finnish Competition Authority.


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